AfDB okays $200m loan to bridge Nigeria’s digital backbone, jobs

News Update

THE Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a $200 million loan to Nigeria to facilitate a key initiative to bridge the country’s digital value chain.

The project would boost the deployment of 90,000 kilometres of open-access fibre nationwide, expand digital skills, and drive job creation across the country.

Nigeria, reputed to be Africa’s most populous economy, is West Africa’s largest market.

With the digital economy increasingly emerging as a major contributor to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), fixing the Digital Value Chain Infrastructure for Boosting Employment (D-VIBE) Project would bridge the existing connectivity gaps and support productivity and job creation in the economy.

Also, the initiative would contribute significantly to the growth of the economy by extending Nigeria’s national fibre backbone currently at about 30,000 km to about 120,000 km, linking all 774 Local Government Areas, including schools, health facilities, agro-industrial zones, rural communities and commercial hubs – to high-speed broadband and establishing cross-border linkages with neighbouring Benin, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.

D-VIBE, also known as Project BRIDGE, is structured as a public-private partnership through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), to help address rollout constraints such as high construction and Right-of-Way costs.

The partnership structure has the public ownership capped between 25% and 49% and private sector participation between 51% and 75%.

The AfDB Group said it was providing the $200 million loan as part of an $800 million sovereign financing package for the project, alongside $500 million from the World Bank and $100 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Total project financing is estimated at $2 billion, and includes an EU grant of €22 million, a $2.6 million Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) project preparation grant, and at least $1.2 billion of investment from the private sector.

“Nigeria has the talent, the market, and the ambition. What it lacks is the backbone infrastructure to connect that potential to opportunity. D-VIBE changes that.

From the north to the south, from farms to factories to classrooms, this investment will make high-speed connectivity a reality for every Nigerian community and give young people the tools to build their futures digitally,” the Director General, AfDB Group, Nigeria Office, Abdul Kamara, said in an official statement.

Kamara said the project is supported through a working group of development finance institutions, co-led by the Nigerian government and the AfDB Group that would lalign design choices, technical studies and financing.

Beyond infrastructure, the Bank said the project aims to address demand-side barriers to digital use with affordable devices, large-scale skills development and support for digital platforms in priority sectors.

Besides, it said the initiative would also support enabling cybersecurity and market competition policies, while applying criteria – including increased use of hybrid and renewable power – to build resilience.

D-VIBE is expected to support creation of up to 2.8 million jobs over its lifecycle and raise national broadband penetration from 45% to around 70% by 2030.

The project aligns with Nigeria’s Vision 2050, its National Development Plan and Renewed Hope Development Plan (2026-2030), the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and the African Development Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy (2024-2033).