Bosun Tijani, minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy, yesterday announced the World Bank has provided a significant boost to Nigeria's efforts to deploy 90,000 km of fibre across the country.

The minister confirmed this in a post to his X account.

While the specifics of the support—whether financial or otherwise—were not released, Tijani previously stated that discussions were underway with bankers, including the World Bank, to raise the $2 billion required for the project.

“An excellent few days in DC with the World Bank as we received a massive boost for our 90,000km Fibre Fund project. We’re ready to move! Let’s go,” Tijani posted.

He stated that several organisations are finalising plans for the project's financing, and that the Federal Executive Council has established a special purpose entity to facilitate funding aggregation required for its deployment.

The goal is to increase Nigeria's existing connectivity backbone from 35,000 km to 125,000 km, which will greatly improve national connectivity and telecom services.

Tijani stressed that enhanced connectivity would develop a more robust digital environment, opening up both short- and long-term opportunities for Nigerians.

He expects the deployment to begin within the next six months and pointed out the project's potential to raise internet penetration to over 70% while lowering access costs by more than 60%.