Early Warning System

Countries

Nigeria

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Financial Institutions

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Proposed

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Voting Date

Dec 17, 2025

Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.

Borrower

Government of Nigeria - Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Econ

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Communications
Infrastructure

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Type(s)

Loan

The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 100.00 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Project Cost (USD)

$ 900.00 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ EBRD website

Updated in EWS Nov 12, 2025

Disclosed by Bank Oct 14, 2025

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, the project consists of the provision of a sovereign loan of up to USD 100 million to the Federal Republic of Nigeria to finance its participation in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the nationwide rollout of approximately 90,000 km of fibre-optic broadband infrastructure.

The proposed project directly supports the Federal Government of Nigeria's objective to close the digital divide and raise service quality by enabling affordable household connectivity of at least 25 Mbps nationwide. By delivering resilient, open, and cost-effective broadband infrastructure, the project will also underpin economic diversification, productivity growth for MSMEs, and improved delivery of digital public services (education, health, security). The intervention prioritises unserved and underserved regions where commercial deployment has stalled, aligning public resources to de-risk first-mover investment and crowd in private capital for last-mile expansion. The project will be structured around the following components:

Resilient Digital Infrastructure. This component finances the rollout of climate-resilient, low-carbon backbone and backhaul fibre in priority corridors lacking adequate connectivity. Infrastructure will be designed for high availability and disaster tolerance (redundant routes, robust O&M standards, secure landing and aggregation points). The build will follow open-access principles to maximise competition: neutral colocation, fair wholesale pricing, and transparent interconnection to enable ISPs, MNOs and other operators to extend service to households, public institutions, businesses and mobile towers. Public funds are catalyticitargeted to segments with poor economicsito mobilise private co-investment and operating commitments for last-mile access, including fixed wireless where appropriate. Expected outputs include new fibre-kilometres commissioned, population and institution coverage uplift, latency and outage reductions, and wholesale tariff benchmarks that enable affordable retail offers.

The Borrower is the Federal Republic of Nigeria represented by the Federal Ministry of Finance, with the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy as the implementing entity.

Early Warning System Project Analysis

For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

The EBRD transaction under appraisal is considered to be the use of funds to establish the vehicle which will then enable the wider project role out. Potential E&S risks and impacts associated with the initial transaction are limited, however, the potential impacts associated with the future and wider project implementation derive from the largescale footprint of the Project and country E&S risk context.

Based on the present expectation of a single transaction with conditions precedent to each disbursement, the Project is categorised B. Contextual risks derive from the country profile and sectoral risks associated with fibre infrastructure. Implementation risks derive from the special purpose vehicle (SPV) having yet to be established.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

Provision of a sovereign loan of up to USD 100 million.

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No contacts available at the time of disclosure.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can request information by emailing: accessinfo@ebrd.com or by using this electronic form: https://www.ebrd.com/eform/information-request

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF EBRD

The Project Complaint Mechanism (PCM) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the PCM, it may assess compliance with EBRD's own policies and procedures to prevent harm to the environment or communities or it may assist you in resolving the problem that led to the complaint through a dialogue with those implementing the project. Additionally, the PCM has the authority to recommend a project be suspended in the event that harm is imminent.

You can contact the PCM at: pcm@ebrd.com or you can submit a complaint online using an online form at: http://www.ebrd.com/eform/pcm/complaint_form?language=en

You can learn more about the PCM and how to file a complaint at: http://www.ebrd.com/work-with-us/project-finance/project-complaint-mechanism.html