The national strategy for community-centred connectivity was the main outcome of the multistakeholder meeting held in Abuja in October 2024, validating and enriching the work of the advisory committee, whose operationalisation plan points to the way forward. The strategy serves not only as a guiding document but also as a practical reference framework, identifying key focus areas, with policy and regulatory support as foundational to create an enabling environment for CCCIs in Nigeria, as well as prioritising advocacy and gender inclusion for meaningful and inclusive connectivity. The participation and commitment of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) signalled that it would lead to fruitful future synergies. 

Another milestone for the operationalisation of the national strategy was the government workshop, “Enabling a policy framework for establishing community networks in Nigeria”, in June 2025 at the NCC Centre of Excellence in Mbora, Abuja to examine the policy and regulatory challenges hindering the emergence and sustainability of community networks and CCCIs in the country. 

The workshop provided a collaborative platform for NCC, APC, the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the USPF, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) among other stakeholders to discuss critical issues as affordable devices, licensing and spectrum access, wholesale bandwidth, infrastructure development, sustainability, funding mechanisms and institutional monitoring. It marked an important step toward advancing digital inclusion and strengthening grassroots connectivity solutions. 

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The workshop on enabling a policy framework consolidated the collaboration between LocNet and the NCC. It brought together a group of experts who discussed actionable steps for integrating community networks into the national ecosystem. Following the workshop, an NCC and LocNet working group was formalised to oversee further initiatives, beginning with a consultancy study and a regulatory framework for community networks. 

As part of this initiative, the NCC is exploring streamlined licensing processes, incentives for local operators, and guidelines for aggregator models to scale community networks, with valuable insights from REA, NITDA and CBN. NCC has also signed a MOU with REA for rural telecom infrastructure deployment.

The workshop gives an opportunity to bring many staff members of NCC, who were able to learn about community networks and to understand what it entails. During the conference they receive learning points from experts. We put [out] a report on it for the development of a framework aiming at achieving a regulation that doesn't impede [community-driven] solutions. – Richards Agulu, principal manager, Digital Economy Department, NCC

As the most populated country in the region, with a great percentage of people with no access to connectivity, projections inform that more than 100,000 communities could benefit from community-centred connectivity in Nigeria. This was a great concern addressed in the October 2024 meeting, and it is a regulatory challenge, making individual licensing processes not feasible. 

To identify more practical approaches, the LocNet initiative launched a study that explored how aggregation models from other countries and sectors could be adapted to this context. The research led to 26 interviews and examined the experiences of Nigeria's Payment Service Bank (PSB) system and Mexico's TIC AC federated cooperative. The team drew lessons from both a large-scale financial model and a community-driven cooperative structure. The findings pointed to an aggregator-based framework as a promising, scalable approach for supporting community networks in Nigeria while easing the regulatory workload. 

This aggregator model benefits not only the regulator by making it much easier to manage a large number of small-scale operators but it has many other downstream advantages like collective negotiation for backhaul service, making the service more sustainable, together [pushing] forward enabling policies and regulations than can assist the sector, and the centralisation of spectrum allowance”. – Mike Jensen, LocNet

Every single stakeholder is incentivised to participate and their incentive drives collaboration, [usage and] innovation. The question, therefore, is not whether aggregation is needed, but how to design a model with strong enough incentives to succeed. The PSB experience shows that ecosystems thrive when every participant has clear benefits and aligned interests. – Fola Odufuwa, national consultant, LocNet

Following the engagements in 2024, Paradigm Initiative developed a policy brief that departed from the definition of community networks in Nigeria, underlining the unique socio-economic benefits they provide. Supported by a national mapping of centres and potential hubs, the brief identified key barriers faced by CCCIs and made strategic recommendations for policy makers and regulators, private sector, civil society and academia. It also proposed a replicable national community network prototype with standardised technical architecture, solar-based power options, clear service provider models and structured training for local maintenance. 

We found that there are different levels but the first step is creating an enabling environment, because even if we have all necessary [resources], if we don't have an enabling environment, the initiatives will lack sustainability. (...) In most of the calls the policy brief made, we are seeing that the action is happening.“  – Ilhueze Nwobilor, Paradigm Initiative

Read the policy brief here.

Partnerships is a key word to describe how Nigeria is advancing to its broader goal for last-mile connectivity, not only focusing on enabling a policy and regulatory environment for CCCIs but also promoting the social, cultural and economic benefits that they provide locally. The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), the Initiative for Digital Inclusion (IDI) and TechSocietal join in this journey developing key components of the national strategy devoted to capacity building, hub deployments and progress in gender equity.

Digital literacy as an enabler of social economic development. Meaningful connectivity cannot be achieved without equipping community members with the skills needed to use and benefit from digital access. CITAD is leading ongoing efforts to strengthen communities, from lessons learned in 10 years of providing grassroot digital literacy. These efforts are now aligned with the National Digital Transformation Agenda led by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), which targets 75% digital literacy nationwide by 2032.

CITAD highlights that digital training must be designed around the lived realities of rural communities and tied to clear, practical incentives, keeping in mind that youth tend to be motivated by educational opportunities, young men by income-generating prospects, and women by the potential to strengthen small businesses.

In rural areas, people are burdened with critical issues. For them to prioritise digital literacy, we need to create a viable incentive that digital literacy can transform their lives. – Y.Z. Ya’u, executive director, CITAD

National School of Community Networks. Another contribution of CITAD to this process is the review of the curriculum of the National School of Community Networks (NSCN) – a collective capacity-building effort for the creation, development and consolidation of CCCIs in five countries of the Global South: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Indonesia and Brazil. In Nigeria, yearly iterations were held: in 2021 with focus on training micro-organisations; in 2022 with lessons delivered in English and Hausa; the third iteration in 2023 emphasised community mobilisation and resource management and the fourth in 2024 focused on training and engagement. CITAD recently completed the fifth iteration held in Kano in December 2025.

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Self-built sustainable connectivity Hubs Project. The Initiative for Digital Inclusion (IDI) accompanies communities in building connectivity hubs. Despite funding constraints – related to seasonal income or local harvest – and external factors that affect implementation such as rainfall, security challenges or displaced populations, meaningful progress is being recorded. Some communities have voluntarily provided land and other inputs for hub development and existing infrastructure from USPF and NCC has proven useful. IDI stressed the importance of working with locally grounded partners who understand community dynamics and language. An example from northwest Kaduna demonstrated that such partnerships can accelerate implementation and improve acceptance. 

A big problem is funding, weather is a factor and further learning is security. ... Once [the] infrastructure is put in place, we have to walk with partners and organisations to understand the cultural environments. –  Osondu Nwokoro, director, IDI

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Centring progress in gender inclusion in the CCCI agenda is another key achievement of the national strategy for community-centred connectivity in Nigeria, focusing on enabling digital skills and building leadership for women who have previously been excluded. This focus was embodied in the efforts led by CITAD and TechSocietal. 

Women’s circles and mentorship for gender equity. CITAD conducted initiatives that led to identifying key barriers as well as accommodating perspectives from women in the communities when addressing access to technology. Local women’s circles were held in six different regions of the country and also a mentorship programme in which more than 70 women participated in training spaces with local languages, peer support and a safe environment for learning and experimentation. These efforts have empowered women to manage digital hubs, deliver training and provide technical support within their communities. “How can we ensure that our expanding digital landscape uplifts women and girls, instead of reinforcing old inequalities?” asked Harira Wakili in an article where she reflects on her journey while coordinating the women's circles.  

Evidence from national assessments and women’s engagement cycles across Bauchi, Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna and Port Harcourt demonstrates that when women are co-creators and operators, networks become more resilient, secure and sustainable. – Harira Wakili, national gender coordinator, CITAD 

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Linking data and policy advocacy. The lack of community-generated data for gender-responsive advocacy is addressed by TechSocietal, through diverse  initiatives: a workshop on gender-sensitive ICT policies, bringing together nearly 30 community network operators, civil society organisations and stakeholders; a needs assessment to identify skills and knowledge gaps among women operators and users; and a collection of case studies that document barriers, and success stories of women in community networks. These studies included the impact of connectivity on women’s livelihoods and micro-enterprises in Port Harcourt, girls’ education in Bauchi and Kano, and the role of religion and gender norms in digital inclusion. The evidence generated through these activities will inform the development of a policy brief which aims to feed into the upcoming National Broadband Plan (2026-2030).

We found that communities have the data and local knowledge, but there is a gap when it comes to engaging policy for closing the digital divide. In capacity building, we noticed participants had never read an ICT policy. They don’t know how to connect the awesome work they do in their community with the advocacy for ICT policies in the country. The highlight of that conversation for us was that at the end of the day we had three working groups on policy, research, and local economy”. – Temitope Ogundipe, executive director, TechSocietal)

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Addressing CCCIs to bridge the digital divide requires focusing on multiple and interconnected challenges – from financing and backhaul access to infrastructure deployment and long-term management. Against this backdrop, stakeholders convened to the webinar held in November 2025 reflected on this issues for accessing a meaningful connectivity that aligns with the realities, needs and aspirations of local communities. The discussion highlighted experiences shared by APC, WACREN, Unconnected and Hello World, with emphasis on three critical priorities: scalability, replicability and sustainability. 

Sustainable funding and financing CCCIs. Financing CCCIs is a growing concern that earned much focus in 2025, especially during milestones like the T20 side event on innovative finance held in Cape Town. This challenge is particularly relevant for the local ecosystem working on digital inclusion, sustaining initiatives that need more adequate funding and finance sources. This runs parallel with an ongoing need of skills and tools required to build sustainable business models, reducing reliance on short-term grants, and enabling long-term growth. Meanwhile, discussions with development finance institutions and Universal Service Funds indicate a growing potential for blended finance models, that could enable more sustainable, scalable and replicable community networks, operating at national, regional or even global levels.

Beyond grants, blended finance and loan funds present viable mechanisms for funding initial investments and technical capacity-building. By combining public, private and development finance with partial grant support, borrowing costs can be reduced while covering essential non-revenue-generating activities. – Mike Jensen, APC

Lessons learned on affordable backhaul.For the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) backhaul has long been a bottleneck for expanding research networks, largely due to high operational costs and sparse infrastructure outside major urban areas. These challenges mirror those faced by community networks. Universities and higher education institutions can play a strategic role as aggregation hubs, given their technical capacity, established infrastructure and geographic proximity to rural areas, featuring a strong potential for partnership between research networks and community networks. 

At the end of the day, these institutions extend communities and we can aggregate the need further and reduce costs there. We need a shared vision for a shared backhaul, sharing public digital infrastructures with communities at the centre, to provide scalable and sustainable access. – Omo Oaiya, WACREN

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Affordable technology and operational sustainability. Unconnected.org is driving an initiative that combines satellite technology with support for hyper-local internet service providers (ISPs). A key feature of the model is a voucher-based system that allows users to access the internet affordably for a set period, ensuring that services remain accessible to low-income communities. Community behaviours, such as diaspora members supporting relatives with digital devices, have positively influenced uptake. The initiative also prioritises connectivity to schools and hospitals, where some sites have achieved self-sustainability, covering both capital and operational expenditure. Nonetheless, many rural sites still require temporary subsidisation until sufficient user adoption is reached.

A blended funding approach, coupled with targeted community engagement and local partnerships, is essential to achieving scalable and sustainable connectivity in rural Nigeria. – Tobi Durojaiye, Unconnected.org

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Achievements and lessons learned from sustaining digital access. Over the past year, Hello World has collaborated with APC and CITAD to empower communities to establish and operate their own networks, initially providing free services while guiding them toward financial sustainability. A key challenge identified by Hello World is the high upfront capital investment required for solar panels, network equipment and training. Over the last five months, Hello World has focused on building local capacity by supporting communities to understand operational requirements, establish governance structures and explore viable financial models. Recognising that fundraising alone is insufficient, communities are exploring regular income streams through voucher-based Wi-Fi access and printing services to maintain operational costs.

The combination of robust governance, community engagement and diversified funding strategies has proven essential in establishing sustainable, community-led digital networks. – Dave Naxic, Hello World 

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