How Stanley Jegede Built a Fibre Network Along Nigeria’s Power Grid
Nigerian businessman Stanley Jegede built a telecommunications footprint by deploying fibre optic cables along the route of Nigeria’s national power grid, according to Billionaires.Africa.
The approach, executed through Phase 3 Telecom, the company associated with Jegede, took advantage of the existing right-of-way held by power transmission infrastructure. Rather than negotiating separate corridors through densely populated cities or across difficult terrain, the company ran its fibre alongside the high-voltage lines that already crisscrossed the country. The model effectively turned a liability, the country’s chronically underperforming power sector, into a strategic asset for digital connectivity.
Nigeria has long faced twin infrastructure deficits: an erratic power supply and limited fixed-line broadband. For decades, telecom operators relied heavily on microwave links and mobile towers to carry voice and data traffic. Laying fibre in the ground remains expensive and logistically difficult in a country of more than 200 million people spread across vast distances. Jegede’s strategy offered a workaround: leverage infrastructure that was already in place, even when the electricity flowing through it was unreliable.
The Phase 3 network grew into one of the largest privately operated fibre footprints in West Africa, serving as a backbone for internet service providers, banks, mobile operators and public institutions. Its routes connected Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and other commercial centres, supporting the country’s expanding digital economy.
The model has since been studied elsewhere on the continent, where utilities and telecoms operators increasingly view shared infrastructure as a way to cut deployment costs. For Nigeria, Jegede’s fibre network stands as an example of how local entrepreneurs have shaped the country’s connectivity using the resources already at hand.
Sources
This report was written from coverage published by the following news organisations. Follow the links for the original reporting.
- Billionaires.Africa — Tycoon Stanley Jegede strung fibre across Nigeria's power grid
