The slower pace of financial inclusion has been another area of concern. According to data from the World Bank’s Global Findex, a tracker of financial inclusion worldwide, Nigeria’s rate of financial inclusion declined to around 40% in 2017, from 44% in 2014. Unlike many other African markets, Nigeria does not allow mobile operators to directly offer mobile money and other financial services. In turn, Nigeria’s bank-led framework has hindered digital financial services growth and is challenging the country’s ability to hit an established target of 80% financial inclusion by 2020.

Fibre rollout is also being held back, with a direct impact on the pace of 4G coverage and Nigeria’s readiness for 5G. Data from the Xalam Africa Terrestrial Fibre Dashboards indicates that Nigeria has the second largest fibre installed base in Sub-Saharan Africa, only behind South Africa. Nonetheless, more than 60% of Nigerian fibre is dedicated to mobile operator self-provisioning, creating a considerable scarcity of metro and interurban fibre capacity.

In effect, not enough open access terrestrial fibre is being built in Nigeria, owing to a range of issues ranging from high right of way costs to multiple taxation. Excluding MTN Nigeria, terrestrial fibre rollout growth has been flat, averaging around 400 km a year between 2014 and 2017, and falling to less than 200 km a year since the Nigerian economic crisis intensified in 2016. Of the 25 Sub-Saharan African markets tracked in the Xalam Africa Terrestrial Fibre Dashboards, 16 have built more open access terrestrial fibre than Nigeria over the past five years.