{
  "id": 14344069,
  "title": "NIGERIA AND THE INVISIBLE RAILS",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/nigeria-and-the-invisible-rails",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-14T01:46:53.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "This Day",
    "slug": "this-day",
    "url": "https://www.thisdaylive.com/2026/10/14/nigeria-and-the-invisible-rails/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Nigeria's economy, valued at ₦3.4 quadrillion, is heavily reliant on telecom networks, according to economist John Emenike. In 2025, electronic payment transactions reached ₦3.458 quadrillion, a significant surge from the ₦1.078 quadrillion recorded a year prior. This growth was reflected in the processing of 47.9 billion transactions, up from 11.3 billion, and a staggering ₦41.74 trillion via Point-of-Sale terminals, a 62.5% increase over 2025. With 8.36 million registered POS devices, 5.9 million actively in use, Nigeria's Instant Payment system, maintained by the National Payments and Clearing Corporation (NIBSS), was rated the most inclusive on the African continent, boasting 57.7 million users, representing 52% of the adult population.\n\nThe question then arises: what physical infrastructure supports this vast digital payments network, and who is responsible for its construction? The answer lies in telecoms. Every transaction via a mobile app, USSD session, or fintech platform requires a functional mobile network connection. The terminals connect to payment processors largely through mobile SIMs. For instance, when a rider-hailing driver accepts a digital fare, when a pharmacist confirms a transfer, or when a fruit seller checks her POS balance, each action depends on a signal traveling from a base station to a switch and back again.\n\nEbenezer Onyeagwu, former Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank, noted that introducing USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) fundamentally changed banking. \"Without telecoms infrastructure,\" he said, \"there is no USSD code.\" While the share of total payment value held by USSD has declined to 0.14%, the migration from USSD to banking apps has further deepened Nigeria's dependency on telecoms infrastructure. Banking apps consume more bandwidth and provide consistent usage throughout the day, intensifying the reliance on telecoms.\n\nThe sector's infrastructure is the result of substantial capital investment. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission, telecom operators invested over ₦2.13 trillion in capital expenditure on network infrastructure and upgrades in 2025, with tower companies adding another ₦373.8 billion, totaling around ₦2.5 trillion for the year. MTN Nigeria alone spent ₦1 trillion in 2025, more than doubling its 2024 expenditure of ₦443.5 billion, and financed an expansion to 43,000 kilometers of fibre backbone and 93.7% population coverage. In the first half of 2026, MTN alone committed ₦620.5 billion in capital expenditure, with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) confirming over 12,000 site additions and upgrades, including 3,000 new 5G sites in 27 states.\n\nHowever, the infrastructure supporting Nigeria's digital payments ecosystem is not owned by individual institutions. What has changed in the past decade is the number of entities whose business models depend on this shared layer. Today, POS transactions connect to licensed Payment Terminal Service Aggregators, NIBSS, and UPSL (Universal Payments System Limited), with automatic failover between them to prevent settlement failures. This interdependence has been recognized by regulators, with the Central Bank of Nigeria mandating all POS transactions to connect to both licensed providers, acknowledging the systemic risk a single point of connectivity failure could pose to the national payments system.",
  "summary": "Nigeria’s ₦3.4 quadrillion economy runs on telecom networks, argues JOHN EMENIKE In 2025, electronic payment transactions in Nigeria reached ₦3.458 quadrillion, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Annual Report,",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}