Communities in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State have a working telecom tower under the federal government’s NUCAP programme, after the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, commissioned the site on Friday, October 16, 2026. NUCAP, the Nigeria Universal Communication Access Project, aims to put up 3,700 towers in places that have never had a reliable phone signal, reaching close to 20 million Nigerians.
Each tower is expected to cover roughly 5,000 to 10,000 people, according to figures Tijani gave in September, when he also promised that “Before December, at least 200 of those sites will be active.” That leaves about six weeks for the programme to show it can hit its first big target, and Bende is now one of the places residents and officials will be watching.
| Bende site commissioned | 16 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Towers planned nationwide | 3,700 |
| People to be reached | About 20 million |
| Coverage per tower | Roughly 5,000 to 10,000 people |
| Target before December | At least 200 active sites |
| Other Bende locations identified | 16, awaiting validation |
| Networks on the towers | Not confirmed |
Bende is just the start, and Tijani wants every community there online by Christmas
Speaking at the commissioning, Tijani said “Through NUCAP, we are delivering 3,700 towers across the country”, and that more sites would follow “in the coming days, weeks and months.” Reports from the event say he also pledged to connect every community in Bende before Christmas. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, whose constituency covers the area, said 16 further locations in Bende had been identified as lacking coverage, although those still have to be validated before towers go up.
Kalu framed the tower as a door for young people in the area, saying “The talent is already here in Bende. We must provide the connections through which that talent can grow.” He asked the ministry and its partners to work with his office and community leaders to map the remaining gaps, which is a reminder that the 3,700 figure is a national plan, not a list of confirmed villages.
Who builds the masts and who pays for them
Reports from the commissioning say the Bende site was delivered by Global Independent Connect Limited, a subsidiary of IHS Towers, and that the project is funded through the Universal Service Provision Fund, the pool telecom operators pay into for rural access. In June, Tijani also announced that China Industrial Bank had committed to support at least 1,000 NUCAP sites, which was the bank’s first investment in Nigeria. NUCAP’s first tower went up earlier at Kura village near Abuja, and the programme sits apart from the government’s planned 90,000-kilometre fibre network.
What hasn’t been published is which mobile networks will broadcast from each site, and that detail matters more to a farmer or trader than the tower count. A mast only helps you if your SIM’s operator is on it, so it’s fair to ask before buying a new line in a newly covered area. MTN was among the companies thanked at the Bende event, but no operator has confirmed which NUCAP sites it will use.
Rural signal is the gap Nigeria’s record data numbers hide
Nigerians in cities are using more mobile data than ever, as the NCC’s figures showing a record 1.76 million terabytes in August made clear, yet millions in rural areas still can’t place a call from home. That’s also why the arrival of a new operator, covered in our look at the STN licence, matters less to an unserved village than a physical mast does. Towers built with public money in places operators have avoided for years are the part of the connectivity plan that changes daily life the fastest.
If your community has no signal and wasn’t mentioned in the Bende announcement, the most direct route for now is through your local government and your federal lawmaker’s office, since that’s how Kalu’s 16 Bende locations were put forward. The December count of 200 active sites will be the first real test of NUCAP, and the questions to keep asking are where those sites are and which networks you can actually use on them.
