Nigeria has 231 licensed internet service providers. Only 133 are still active. Spectranet, the largest among them by subscribers, has been losing customers for six consecutive quarters. On March 23, 2026, Legend Internet Plc and Spectranet announced a merger that will create Nigeria’s largest ISP — on paper, a story about scale. In practice, it is a survival play for two companies being squeezed simultaneously by satellite disruption, forex costs, and the approaching arrival of $2 billion in state-backed fibre infrastructure that will favour operators with the balance sheet to participate.
The deal — announced jointly to the Nigerian Exchange Limited, where Legend Internet is listed — would combine Legend’s fibre backbone network with Spectranet’s 4G LTE and wireless assets to create a company targeting a ₦80 billion market capitalisation. The transaction is subject to approval from the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Nigerian Communications Commission, with closure expected in Q2 2026. Legend shares jumped 20% on the announcement, moving from ₦6.00 to ₦7.26 within 48 hours.
“This marks a pivotal moment for Nigeria’s broadband industry,” said Aisha Abdulaziz, Legend Internet’s CEO. “Our merger with Spectranet positions us to build a future-ready digital platform that delivers world-class connectivity to Nigerians while creating sustained value for our shareholders.” Legend Chairman Ladi Bada described the merger as unlocking a “stronger capital base and improved infrastructure” to invest in next-generation technologies and expand into new markets.
What is being merged
Legend Internet Plc is Nigeria’s first publicly listed ISP, a distinction that gave it access to capital markets but a subscriber base that remains modest relative to Spectranet. Its principal asset is a fibre network that provides the backbone infrastructure for last-mile connectivity — the component that Spectranet has historically lacked.
Spectranet is the market share leader by subscribers — 47.3% of Nigeria’s wireless ISP market as of late 2024 — but the headline figure masks a deteriorating position. Active customers fell from 103,252 in Q1 2025 to 99,520 in Q2 2025, part of a consistent decline driven by two factors: Starlink’s aggressive pricing and the rising forex costs of maintaining a 4G LTE network built primarily on imported equipment and spectrum licensed in dollar-referenced fees.
The combined entity’s proposition is vertical integration: Spectranet’s last-mile wireless coverage plugged into Legend’s fibre backbone, delivering a converged ISP with the geographic reach to compete in both the consumer and SME markets. Together, Spectranet and Legend would control the single largest share of Nigeria’s fixed and wireless broadband subscriber base.
The pressure forcing the deal
Nigeria’s ISP market is consolidating under duress. Of 231 licensed ISPs, only 133 remain operationally active — a 40% dormancy rate that reflects just how punishing the operating environment has become. Spectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne between them serve 65% of all ISP-connected users in Nigeria, a total of approximately 203,000 active customers out of roughly 314,000. The math is brutal: most licensed ISPs are competing for the remaining 35% of a market that itself reaches only a fraction of Nigeria’s 220 million population.
Starlink is the most disruptive variable. SpaceX’s fixed broadband offering arrived in Nigeria in 2023 and has grown aggressively, with pricing that has undercut legacy 4G wireless ISPs in the SME and premium home segments — precisely the segments where Spectranet built its subscriber base. The pending Airtel-Starlink Direct-to-Cell partnership across 14 African markets, reported in March 2026, signals that satellite competition will deepen further. ISPs that cannot offer fibre-grade speeds or competitive pricing are structurally exposed to replacement.
The BRIDGE prize
The merger’s timing is not coincidental. Nigeria’s Building Resilient Digital Infrastructure for Growth programme — BRIDGE — is entering execution phase. The $1.6 billion initiative aims to expand Nigeria’s national fibre backbone from approximately 35,000 kilometres to 125,000 kilometres. The World Bank has committed $500 million, disbursed over 2026–2031 against performance milestones; the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has approved $100 million, and the EU has contributed a €22 million grant. In March 2026, Nigeria committed $6.1 million to consultants to set up the special purpose vehicle that will manage the rollout — but physical construction has not yet begun at scale, and the bulk of World Bank disbursements land between 2027 and 2030.
BRIDGE is not a government-builds-and-gifts programme. It is a public-private infrastructure buildout in which ISPs with sufficient scale, technical capacity, and regulatory standing will be positioned to access fibre capacity at wholesale rates — and to compete for last-mile service contracts over the backbone. An ISP with 99,000 subscribers and a 4G-only network is a marginal participant in that tender environment. A converged operator with fibre infrastructure and 150,000-plus subscribers is a primary beneficiary.
Nigeria’s broadband penetration reached 53.07% in January 2026 — up 16.4% year-on-year but still well short of the 70% target set under the National Broadband Plan 2020–2025. The government’s revised target extends the 70% goal to 2030. The BRIDGE rollout is the mechanism. The ISPs that scale up in 2026 and 2027 are positioning for the last-mile contracts that follow.
The NCC’s consolidation signal
The regulator’s posture has been permissive — and in some respects, encouraging. The NCC licensed six new ISPs in early 2026 even as the dormancy rate among existing licensees remained above 40%. The apparent contradiction resolves against the backdrop of NCC’s strategy: maintain a competitive entry environment to prevent incumbent pricing power, while allowing market forces to consolidate the operators who cannot achieve viable scale.
NCC has made its broadband expansion expectations clear through the BRIDGE framework — operators need to demonstrate coverage commitments and technical capacity to access the backbone infrastructure. The merger filing with NGX triggers NCC review, but the regulator has no obvious policy reason to block a consolidation that reduces market fragmentation without eliminating any major market participant. The FCCPC review will focus on the combined entity’s market position in Lagos and Abuja, where both companies have significant overlap.
Who is watching
The competitive implications extend beyond the ISP market. MTN is targeting 20 to 30 million homes via fixed wireless access under its Ambition 2030 strategy — a direct competitor to fixed broadband ISPs in the same market segment. Airtel has been rebuilding its fibre footprint. Both telcos have structural advantages over independent ISPs: tower infrastructure, spectrum holdings, and the capital to sustain losses while building coverage.
The Legend-Spectranet merger is the independent ISP sector’s response to that pressure — a bet that consolidation at scale can create an operator capable of competing with telcos on their terms. The ₦80 billion combined market cap remains a fraction of MTN Nigeria’s valuation, but it represents a credible challenger platform in a way that either company alone does not.
Whether the merger closes on its Q2 2026 timeline, clears both regulators, and delivers the operational integration that fibre-wireless convergence requires — these are execution questions that will take the better part of 2026 to answer. What is clear today is why it is happening: Nigeria’s broadband market is no longer large enough, or growing fast enough, for 133 active ISPs to survive.
UphivaBETAR
Joseph Busari
