By Gloria Ikibah
The European Union has announced a fresh €45 million investment to deepen digital cooperation with Nigeria, marking a major boost to the country’s digital economy and infrastructure.
The agreement was signed at the EU–Nigeria Digital Open Day in Brussels by Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, and the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jozef Síkela. The funding completes the EU Digital Economy Package for Nigeria and reinforces growing collaboration between both sides in the digital sector. 
Speaking at the signing, Commissioner Síkela said the initiative reflected the EU’s broader Global Gateway vision. “Global Gateway is about delivering new opportunities, and the EU-Nigerian cooperation in the digital area has a very strong potential to do exactly that. Our approach to digitalisation is based on skills-transfer, open standards, data protection, privacy and security. This way, we make sure that technologies truly enrich human lives. The new package will take our efforts even further by supporting modern e-public services and investing in the skills that will prepare Nigeria’s youth for the digital future.”
Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Tijani, described the partnership as a reflection of shared values and long-term ambition. “The EU–Nigeria digital economy cooperation reflects our shared belief that digital transformation must provide a platform for growth in productivity driven by technology. As part of this, Project Bridge provides a commercially sustainable entry point for European investors and suppliers to participate in deploying an open-access fibre network at scale. Combined with our leadership in Artificial Intelligence, Digital Public Infrastructure and programmes such as 3 million Technical Talents, Nigeria offers European businesses a market where talent, demand and policy alignment converge to support long-term investment and expansion.”
A key pillar of the programme is flagship support for Project Bridge, an ambitious plan to deploy 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic backbone across Nigeria.
The project is regarded as the country’s largest digital infrastructure investment and is backed by loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
The €45 million grant will support the preparatory phase of the project through technical assistance and equipment, covering detailed fibre network design, local skills development and supply chain deployment, with strong involvement from the European private sector.
Beyond infrastructure, the EU programme will help modernise Nigeria’s public administration by expanding secure and user-friendly digital public services. It also includes targeted support for Nigeria’s nationwide digital skills initiatives, aimed at training a new generation of technicians, engineers and IT specialists to ensure the long-term sustainability of large-scale digital networks and to drive job creation.
The EU–Nigeria Digital Open Day was designed to give European investors and suppliers direct insight into opportunities within Nigeria’s fast-growing digital ecosystem, with Project Bridge presented as a central platform for collaboration.
The wider €1.7 billion project is expected to expand Nigeria’s total fibre-optic network to 125,000 kilometres, a 70 per cent increase that would make it the third-largest terrestrial fibre network in Africa, after Egypt and South Africa.
Digitalisation remains a cornerstone of the EU–Nigeria partnership, anchored in the €820 million Digital Economy Package launched in 2022 under the EU’s Global Gateway strategy. The collaboration spans connectivity, digital skills, entrepreneurship, public services and governance, reflecting Nigeria’s position as a leading digital and start-up hub on the continent.
Nigeria currently hosts Africa’s largest e-commerce market, employs millions in the digital economy and accounts for six of the continent’s eight unicorn start-ups, underlining the scale of opportunity the new investment seeks to unlock.
