In the world of fibre broadband infrastructure development, we often discuss hard costs, such as cables, and soft costs, like licenses. However, in Nigeria, there is a third, often overlooked category: informal costs.
Part of these informal costs is neighbourhood money (tax), also known as Owo Adugbo here in the southwestern part of Nigeria.
This is a community entry fee demanded by local youths (area boys) before any contractor can dig a trench or lay fibre.
While this might seem like a small local settlement, for a development expert, it is one of the biggest hurdles to connecting Nigeria to the digital age.
Why Owo Adugbo is a Major Disincentive to National Development
I live and work here in Lagos State, Nigeria. I can count multiple occasions where area boys have disrupted critical infrastructure projects we were working on as a result of the Owo Adugbo settlement.
Interestingly, when a neighbourhood demands ₦500,000 or a million Naira before a fibre cable is laid, they aren’t just taking money from a “rich company”; they are sabotaging their own future by default. Here is why:
1. The Blacklist Effect: Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have limited budgets. If neighbourhood A is peaceful and neighbourhood B demands heavy settlement, the provider can simply skip neighbourhood B and move on.
This scenario can lead to digital inequality, where some areas have access to high-speed internet, while others are left out.
2. Inflated Costs for Everyone: Every Naira paid to area boys is added to the cost of doing business. To recover that money, the provider has to charge more for data.
In the end, the same community members end up paying higher monthly bills because of the tax their local youths collected earlier on.
3. Scaring Off Foreign Investors: No global investor wants to put money into a country where informal actors can halt a multi-million-dollar project with sticks and broken bottle pieces, with no consequence. In the long run, it’s the country that stands disadvantaged economically.
How To Deal With This Stubborn Challenge
Tackling this challenge requires a mix of law, diplomacy, and community education.
1. Enforcement of the Gazetted Designation and Protection of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) Order of 2024
The government must move beyond just talking and treat fibre infrastructures like oil pipelines. If anyone, including area boys, stops a telecom project, they should face immediate legal consequences for economic sabotage. When there are no consequences, bad behaviour continues.
2. A Possible Trade-off?
Service providers can also offer a community benefit, like free Wi-Fi for the local school or the local town hall, in lieu of cash for the boys. This gesture is aimed at making the community the real owners of the project. And as owners, they will protect projects within their domain.
3. Harmonised Local Levies
State governments can create a one-stop shop for all permits. If a service provider pays the state government, that payment should include a small, official community development fee that is transparently shared with the local authorities.
This will remove the need for contractors to negotiate with random groups on each street.
4. Education and Sensitisation
National orientation campaigns designed to explain that telecom network infrastructures are critical national assets that need to be protected by all should be rolled out by the government nationwide. This way, ignorance of the law will no longer be an excuse for its violation.
Final Thoughts
Development happens where it is most welcome. If we continue to allow the Owo Adugbo mentality to thrive, we are essentially telling the future to pause for us. The future waits for no one. For Nigeria to truly develop economically, the path for infrastructure must be cleared of both physical and social blockages.
