By all trendy requirements, free public WiFi must be a necessary amenity at any worldwide and home airport. In at present’s hyperconnected world, vacationers count on seamless web entry to communicate with family members, deal with enterprise emails, and navigate international cities. But, in Nigeria, this expectation stays unmet. Of the nation’s 32 home and worldwide airports, solely two—Murtala Muhammed Worldwide Airport in Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe Worldwide Airport in Abuja—provide any type of free WiFi. Even at these hubs, the connections are unreliable at finest and non-functional at worst.

Stroll into both the Lagos or Abuja airport, open your machine, and also you may spot community names like “FREE AIRPORT WIFI FAAN/NCC” or “Glo Free WiFi.” However that’s often the place the expertise ends. The community may seem robust, however click on to attach and also you’re met with a portal that by no means masses or, worse, an error message. So why, in 2025, can’t Nigerian airports get this seemingly easy service proper?

Damaged connections: The backroom story

The failure of airport WiFi in Nigeria shouldn’t be attributable to an absence of intention— you will get high quality WiFi in lounges managed by personal firms inside the airport— however slightly a posh mixture of technical, bureaucratic, and financial challenges. 

Firstly, infrastructure is a serious difficulty. Many airport routers are outdated or too few to deal with the quantity of travellers who cross by means of the airports on any given day. With out correct community planning or ongoing upkeep, connections change into bottlenecked or break down completely. Even the place alerts are robust, backend techniques typically fail—authentication portals don’t load, or the routers themselves aren’t linked to the web. Some networks broadcast service set identifiers (SSIDs) merely for optics, however they don’t have any actual bandwidth behind them.

The spine of Nigeria’s web—terrestrial fibre and microwave hyperlinks—will be unreliable, particularly in non-urban areas. Even in city areas like Lagos and Abuja, residence to Nigeria’s main worldwide airports, inequitable distribution of telecom tools signifies that the web is all the time fluctuating and unreliable. Mix that with frequent energy cuts and rampant fibre cable vandalism, and it’s no shock that routers typically go offline or by no means reboot correctly. 

Add to {that a} persistent lack of accountability. In contrast to personal ventures with customer-facing service fashions, public WiFi techniques at airports typically don’t have any assigned contractor answerable for uptime or high quality. When one thing breaks, it might take weeks—or by no means—to repair.

Buyers’ reluctance

Free WiFi doesn’t come low cost. Laying fibre, putting in entry factors, securing bandwidth, and sustaining uptime prices actual cash. However for web service suppliers (ISPs), the return on that funding is murky. Free WiFi isn’t a direct income driver until it’s bundled with promoting, consumer analytics, or different monetized providers.

“The airport may begin initially paying, however their expectation is the service supplier will discover a method to earn cash from the service. So, the airport may pay for set up and perhaps a couple of months of bandwidth. This leaves service suppliers looking for a method to commercialize,” Ladi Okuneye, CEO of UniCloud, an area cloud infrastructure supplier, informed TechCabal. 

Probably the most broadly thought-about industrial mannequin for public Wi-Fi is promoting. Nevertheless, main advert platforms like Google usually gained’t enter revenue-sharing agreements with service suppliers until the community attracts vital visitors—typically tens of 1000’s of customers. In 2024, Nigerian airports recorded a complete passenger visitors of roughly 15.68 million, comprising round 11 million home vacationers and 4 million worldwide vacationers. Constructing a constant web consumer base out of travellers can take months and even years, throughout which the service supplier should cowl the total value of bandwidth and community upkeep with out producing income. To handle these ongoing bills, suppliers might lower corners on operational prices, which frequently results in a decline in service high quality.

Poor high quality WiFi can injury a model’s picture if passengers affiliate it with failure. Moreover, Nigeria’s regulatory panorama is notoriously complicated. ISPs might have approval from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC), and even the Nigerian Airspace Administration Company (NAMA)—every with its personal processes and delays. This pink tape deters all however essentially the most persistent operators.

Then, there’s the problem of knowledge monetisation. Globally, free WiFi fashions typically depend on consumer analytics and focused promoting. However in Nigeria, information privateness rules are nonetheless evolving, and the shortage of clear enforcement makes ISPs hesitant to take a position closely in user-tracking techniques which may later be deemed non-compliant.

“There may be additionally the difficulty of upkeep after the preliminary infrastructure is supplied. Somebody must be accountable and bear the associated fee,” Rotimi Akapo, Associate and Head of Telecommunications, Media, and Expertise (TMT) observe group at Advocaat Regulation Observe, informed TechCabal. 

Who’s truly in cost?

Confusion persists over which authorities company is actually answerable for offering web providers at Nigerian airports. Whereas the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) owns and operates the vast majority of airports within the nation, its core mandate is concentrated on airport operations slightly than digital infrastructure. In line with a FAAN official who requested anonymity, the Nigerian Airspace Administration Company (NAMA) is technically answerable for managing web infrastructure at airports. In actuality, each businesses typically depend on third-party Web Service Suppliers (ISPs) to put in and preserve WiFi networks.

As a part of the 2025 nationwide price range, the Nigerian authorities has proposed allocating ₦1.5 billion to enhance web connectivity at 5 worldwide airports throughout the nation. In December 2024, NAMA’s Managing Director, Umar Ahmed Farouk, introduced the restoration of WiFi service at Lagos’s Murtala Muhammed Worldwide Airport. He urged vacationers to hook up with the SSID “Free Airport WiFi NAMA, NCC” for complimentary web entry. Nevertheless, passenger experiences have been disappointing. Many customers report that the community hardly ever connects, and when it does, the web is usually unusable. NAMA officers didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark. 

“NAMA is answerable for managing airspace communications—not passenger-facing WiFi,” stated Sindy Foster, Principal Managing Associate, Avaero Capital Companions, an aviation consultancy. “The NCC (Nigerian Communications Fee), which regulates telecommunications, could also be concerned in public WiFi initiatives, but it surely’s usually personal ISPs like Glo, Smile, or Spectranet who’re contracted to deploy and preserve these networks.”

Sadly, these partnerships don’t all the time include enforceable service-level agreements (SLAs). With out efficiency benchmarks, ISPs aren’t incentivized to take care of high quality. And FAAN, missing inner digital experience, typically doesn’t prioritize connectivity tasks.

Renovation with out connection

Paradoxically, many Nigerian airports have seen latest renovations—new terminals, upgraded lounges, and expanded runways—however the lack of functioning WiFi stays a obvious omission. Lagos and Abuja airports, as an illustration, have seen substantial refurbishments funded by means of native and worldwide partnerships. Modernized check-in counters, improved safety screening areas, and better-designed passenger lounges counsel progress. But, regardless of these seen upgrades, the digital infrastructure has lagged.

This disjointed modernization sends a blended message to vacationers. A glossy terminal means little when a primary Google search or WhatsApp message can’t be despatched with out a private information plan.

What’s at stake?

The absence of purposeful WiFi does extra than simply inconvenience passengers—it hampers Nigeria’s picture and financial potential.

Dependable airport WiFi can improve tourism by bettering first impressions for worldwide guests, in accordance with Foster. It promotes digital inclusion by providing web entry to Nigerians who might not have lively information plans. Entrepreneurs and enterprise vacationers profit from smoother journey logistics, whereas higher connectivity improves communication throughout delays or emergencies.

Furthermore, providing public WiFi alerts a rustic’s dedication to modernization. International locations throughout Africa—like Morocco, South Africa, Rwanda, and Ghana—have more and more invested in airport web entry as a part of broader digital transformation agendas. Nigeria, Africa’s fourth-largest economic system and most populous nation, dangers falling behind if it doesn’t comply with go well with.

What will be carried out?

To maneuver ahead, Nigeria should rethink its method. 

First, FAAN should acknowledge that web entry is now not a luxurious—it’s a necessity. Meaning both constructing inner digital capability or partnering with skilled ISPs underneath enforceable SLAs.

“WiFi works within the lounges; it signifies that connectivity isn’t a problem. It signifies that they’re getting paid. Incentives are a return on funding. If FAAN is able to pay, I’m certain the WiFi would work,” Wole Abu, managing director of Equinix West Africa, operators of the MainOne submarine fibre cable, stated.  

To draw personal sector funding, the federal government should provide higher incentives: promoting rights, information reselling frameworks, tax holidays on telecom tools, and even bundling duty-free retail publicity with connectivity tasks. Lengthy-term public-private partnerships (PPPs) with shared threat and reward will help bridge the infrastructure and repair high quality hole.

Given advert platforms’ reluctance to share income, Forster means that ISPs show their adverts on captive portals—much like the intense, neon-lit boards generally seen inside airports.

“Obligation-free area entry and bundling providers with retail publicity,” she stated. 

Above all, readability is crucial. At this time, solely a handful of airports even promote free WiFi, and fewer nonetheless provide purposeful providers. For vacationers—particularly worldwide ones—that uncertainty creates stress and confusion. Clear communication about out there providers, their high quality, and tips on how to entry them can go a great distance in bettering the consumer expertise.

Till these points are addressed, free WiFi at Nigerian airports will stay extra fable than actuality—seen on display however by no means actually linked.