👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – South Africans are buying more cars

I know we keep complaining about the disappearing network service that Nigerian telecom operators feed us (so much that it’s not even a joke anymore—I say this with a straight face), yet there might be light network bars at the end of the tunnel.

Catch up: Telecom regulator Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said that operators rolled out over 2,800 towers in 2025. While NCC has not published a comparable figure for the number of towers added in 2024, its boss, Aminu Maida, described 2025 as a return of investment momentum and network expansion. These towers—those tall, red and white steel structures you see on your streets—host base stations that transmit and receive mobile signals between your phone and the telecom network. Without them, mobile calls, texts, and data won’t go through.

State of play: Telecom infrastructure is a key investment area for Nigeria as it aims to deepen broadband penetration to 70%. While the country missed that target, broadband connectivity reached 50% by the end of 2025. In December, the government announced plans to build 3,700 cell towers in rural areas, helping to improve network access in these regions. 

Between the lines: Telecom investment by oil-heavy African countries seeking to move away from crude is not altruistic. In the oil industry, prices implode, tanking revenues with it, and there’s the expectation that reserves are finite. 

Economies have been trying to diversify, and telecoms have been a mainstay for many countries’ alternative portfolios. Senegal’s non‑oil revenue draws significantly from heavily taxed telecoms and digital services, even though telecoms are not the majority of total tax receipts, and the country is trying to enable large‑scale tech production and empower its startup economy. 

In Nigeria, telecoms’ contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) surged, standing at 21.49% by the end of 2025. Telecoms is a critical infrastructure because it is the technology underpinning most other ICT and service‑based sectors, forming the backbone of modern digital and economic activity.

Deeper investment will enable wide-scale digital economy growth, yet follow-through, as usual, will remain the yardstick.