The Universal Service Provision Fund has identified 87 telecom blackspots across Nigeria and is putting N10 million on the table to help fix them, with grassroots startups at the center of that plan.
The USPF is inviting local innovators and early-stage companies to bring solutions to communities that have been left out of Nigeria's growing digital economy. The fund is designed to reach the places where big telecoms have not, closing a connectivity gap that affects millions of Nigerians in underserved areas.
This kind of community-level investment signals a shift in how infrastructure challenges are being approached, moving away from top-down rollouts and toward homegrown problem-solving. For startups working in connectivity, rural tech, or last-mile solutions, this is a real opening worth watching closely.
Originally published by BusinessDay.