Despite the steady recovery, the industry continues to be beset by persistent challenges that are hampering its ability to truly fulfil its potential. 4G spectrum allocation remains inadequate, due to a slower-than expected process in awarding more 2.6GHz and 700MHz spectrum, along with a relatively inefficient use of the 800 MHz band.

Fibre deployment has essentially slowed to a crawl, owing to issues around rights-of-way and the slow rollout of licensed fibre infracos providers. Despite a slow recovery, sector capital expenditure levels remain low, as most players either lack the capital to spend, or remain highly cautious in the face of uncertainty.

In turn, Nigeria is now at an elevated risk of not achieving the 30% broadband penetration objective for 2018, as set in its National Broadband Plan.