Nearly a decade after Lagos announced its dream of becoming a “smart city,” residents of Africa’s largest metropolis are still waiting for a functional public WiFi network. In 2016, the Lagos State government unveiled plans to deliver free internet access in parks, terminals, and public offices through a partnership with Dubai Holdings. Hotspots were briefly active in places like Ikeja City Mall and Tafawa Balewa Square, but today, those networks have vanished — leaving millions to rely on expensive mobile data for everyday connectivity.
Over the years, multiple public and private WiFi projects have started and stalled. The state’s 2017 collaboration with MainOne provided temporary free internet in parks such as Muri Okunola and Ndubuisi Kanu, but the service ended within a year due to funding and maintenance failures. Even the Lagos Blue Line Metro, launched in 2023 with promises of free onboard WiFi, has fallen short — passengers report that the service no longer works, while Cowry WiFi, the operator, has gone silent online.
Experts say the repeated collapse of these projects reveals deeper issues. Lagos lacks a unified digital infrastructure policy, and government budgets rarely include a dedicated line for public internet services. Telecom analyst Ladi Okuneye explains that “bandwidth is not free, and someone has to pay for it — either through government funding or ad-supported partnerships, both of which are hard to sustain.” Without stable financing, he adds, “the networks eventually fail.”
The economic barriers are significant. Setting up public WiFi requires costly equipment, fibre installation, and consistent power supply — expenses that can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars for citywide coverage. Private investors are hesitant, citing government maintenance lapses in other public projects, such as the BRT buses, where less than half the fleet is functional daily. These challenges have turned what was once an exciting promise of digital inclusion into a long-standing policy gap.
Still, Lagos isn’t giving up entirely. The state government has so far laid over 6,000 kilometres of metro fibre to connect schools, hospitals, and public institutions, aiming for a 30,000km network that could eventually support public WiFi. But experts warn that without funding, accountability, and a clear business model, the dream of free citywide internet may remain just that — a dream. “Public WiFi can’t succeed as a private effort,” says Diseye Isoun, CEO of Content Oasis. “It must be treated as public infrastructure — essential to education, innovation, and inclusion in the digital age.”
Source: Techcabal