NCC Seeks Transparent Pricing Framework for Fibre Duct Sharing Under Dig-Once Policy
The Nigerian Communications Commission wants a fair, cost-based and commercially workable pricing framework for sharing fibre ducts under the Dig-Once policy. The goal is simple but strategic: reduce wasteful duplication, lower broadband rollout costs, protect investors and make digital infrastructure reach more Nigerians faster.
Nigeria’s broadband future may be decided not only by how much fibre is laid, but by how fairly that fibre infrastructure is shared.
That was the central issue in Abuja on Wednesday as the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, convened a stakeholders’ forum to develop a pricing mechanism and cost-based structure for sharing ducts built under Nigeria’s Dig-Once policy.
The engagement brought together government officials, investors, infrastructure providers and industry stakeholders to examine how shared fibre ducts can be priced in a way that encourages investment, prevents abuse and supports wider broadband expansion.
The NCC is seeking a framework that is transparent, fair, commercially sustainable and strong enough to protect both public interest and private capital. That aligns with the Commission’s broader regulatory role of promoting competition and supporting efficient telecommunications services across Nigeria.
The Big Issue
At the forum, Mr Nadungu Gagare, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, said the discussion was critical to ensuring that the Dig-Once policy delivers on its promise.
According to him, the policy is one of government’s strategic tools for accelerating fibre deployment, reducing broadband expansion costs, preventing repeated road excavation and encouraging efficient use of national resources.
“The Dig-Once policy remains one of the government’s strategic interventions for accelerating fibre infrastructure development,” Gagare said.
He explained that the policy can only achieve its full potential if backed by a pricing framework that is transparent, equitable, commercially viable and attractive enough to encourage infrastructure sharing.
That is the heart of the matter.
Digging roads repeatedly is expensive. It damages public infrastructure. It slows deployment. It creates inconvenience for citizens and businesses. It also discourages investors who need predictable costs before committing capital.
Why Dig-Once Matters
The Dig-Once idea is built around a practical principle: when roads or public corridors are opened for construction, fibre ducts and related infrastructure should be installed in a coordinated way so that operators can share access later.
In simple terms, dig once, share many times.
This approach can reduce civil-engineering duplication, speed up broadband rollout and create a more orderly system for telecom infrastructure expansion.
It also supports the wider digital-economy agenda because broadband is no longer a luxury product. It is the foundation for online learning, fintech, healthcare access, e-commerce, remote work, digital media, cloud services, smart government and enterprise productivity.
NCC’s own public-facing platforms increasingly point to the importance of transparency in telecom infrastructure, including consumer tools, performance reports, coverage maps and outage reporting systems.
The Pricing Question
The difficult part is not accepting that ducts should be shared. Most serious players already know that.
The real question is: at what price?
If duct access is too expensive, smaller operators may be shut out. Broadband expansion will remain slow and concentrated in commercially attractive cities.
If the price is too low, infrastructure investors may struggle to recover costs. That could discourage future investment in fibre, ducts, manholes, conduits and related passive infrastructure.
If the pricing model is opaque, disputes will rise. Operators may delay rollout. Consumers will suffer through higher prices, poorer quality and limited coverage.
This is why a cost-based framework matters.
It gives investors a basis for recovery. It gives access seekers a fair route into the market. It gives regulators a benchmark for dispute resolution. And it gives the economy a better chance of converting infrastructure into productivity.
NCC’s Position
Earlier, Mr Ayuba Shuaibu, Director, Policy, Competition and Economic Analysis at the NCC, said the success of the Dig-Once policy would depend heavily on a transparent and economically sound approach to pricing and access.
He said the policy is designed to reduce the cost and complexity of network deployment by promoting coordinated civil works and shared use of underground duct infrastructure.
But he warned that without a clear pricing mechanism, the policy’s goals of efficiency, fairness and investment protection may not be fully realised.
“This study, therefore, seeks to provide a structured and cost-based framework that ensures equitable access while supporting sustainable infrastructure development across the sector,” Shuaibu said.
He urged stakeholders to interrogate the assumptions, models and outputs of the study so that the final framework would be practical, implementable and reflective of Nigeria’s telecom market realities.
The Cost Burden
The Managing Director of Dimention Data Ltd, Mr Olugbenga Olabiyi, represented by Akpevwe Egbelughe, Lead Solutions Architect and IT Systems and Infrastructure, said broadband deployment still faces major structural and economic barriers despite progress in Nigeria’s telecom sector.
He identified civil-engineering costs as one of the biggest constraints.
According to him, the construction of ducts, sub-ducts, conduits, manholes, poles and related infrastructure usually accounts for the largest part of broadband deployment expenditure.
That observation captures the economics of fibre rollout.
The fibre cable itself is not always the biggest cost. The expensive part is often the digging, trenching, permits, reinstatement, ducts, access chambers, labour, security and coordination required to put the infrastructure in the ground.
Olabiyi noted that passive infrastructure is widely recognised as the most expensive and least easily replicated part of broadband deployment across both advanced and emerging markets.
That is why infrastructure sharing has become a serious policy tool.
The Public Good
Gagare said digital infrastructure is central to the present administration’s development agenda because it supports innovation, digital inclusion, economic diversification and national competitiveness.
Every kilometre of fibre deployed, he said, can help connect more communities, empower businesses, create jobs and expand opportunities for Nigerians.
That is the development-economics case for broadband.
A connected community is more likely to access digital payments, online markets, e-learning, telemedicine, government services, remote jobs and business information. A disconnected community is forced to operate at the margins of the modern economy.
The Dig-Once policy therefore sits at the intersection of telecom regulation, infrastructure planning, urban management, investment promotion and social inclusion.
The Investor Lens
The forum also highlighted the need to protect investor confidence.
Fibre infrastructure requires patient capital. Investors need certainty around pricing, access rights, cost recovery, maintenance responsibility, dispute resolution and regulatory enforcement.
A poorly designed pricing model could frighten capital away. A fair and transparent model could unlock more investment.
The Permanent Secretary urged stakeholders to provide practical recommendations that would strengthen investor confidence while safeguarding the public interest.
That balance is crucial.
The broadband market cannot grow on charity. But it also cannot serve national development if essential infrastructure becomes a monopoly bottleneck.
Market Implications
A transparent duct-sharing pricing framework could reshape Nigeria’s broadband market in five ways.
First, it could lower rollout costs. Operators may spend less on repeated civil works and more on last-mile connections, network quality and customer service.
Second, it could increase competition. Smaller internet service providers and fibre operators may gain access to infrastructure they could not afford to build alone.
Third, it could accelerate coverage. Shared ducts can make it easier to extend fibre to underserved cities, peri-urban communities and commercial clusters.
Fourth, it could reduce infrastructure damage. Coordinated deployment can limit repeated excavation of roads and improve urban planning.
Fifth, it could improve service quality. A more robust fibre backbone supports better broadband, lower latency, improved reliability and stronger enterprise connectivity.
Brand Implications
For telecom operators, infrastructure sharing is no longer just a regulatory issue. It is a brand issue.
Customers do not care how many ducts a company owns. They care whether the network works, whether data is affordable, whether service is reliable and whether their business can stay online.
Operators that support smart sharing can build stronger reputations as enablers of access, innovation and national development.
For the NCC, the brand challenge is regulatory credibility. A transparent pricing framework would show that the Commission is not only promoting investment but also protecting competition, consumers and public infrastructure.
For government, Dig-Once is a chance to demonstrate that policy can reduce waste and support practical economic outcomes.
BRANDECONOMY Insight
Nigeria’s broadband future will not be built by fibre alone.
It will be built by the economics that determine who can deploy, who can share, who can recover investment and who can afford to connect.
The NCC’s push for a transparent pricing framework under the Dig-Once policy is therefore a major regulatory test.
If Nigeria gets it right, the country could reduce wasteful duplication, attract private capital, deepen competition and expand broadband access faster.
If it gets it wrong, fibre ducts could become another infrastructure bottleneck—built with ambition, trapped by pricing disputes and underused by the market.
The lesson is clear: in the digital economy, the pipe is infrastructure, but the pricing is strategy.
