BY Wasilat Azeez
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications Limited have made their full payment of $273.6 million each for the fifth generation (5G) spectrum licence.
In December 2021, after 11 rounds of bidding that lasted for eight hours, Mafab and MTN Nigeria emerged as the two successful winners of the 3,5gigahertz (GHz) spectrum auction for the deployment of 5G technology in Nigeria.
Umar Danbatta, the executive vice-chairman of the NCC, officially confirmed the payment status on Thursday just as the deadline set for the two winners of the spectrum auction elapsed.
“I wish to officially announce that NCC has received and confirmed payments from MTN and Mafab for their acquisition of 1 slot of 100Mhz each in the 3.5Ghz spectrum auction, which was successfully conducted by the Commission on December 13, 2021, a statement issued by Ikechukwu Adinde, director of public affairs at NCC, quoted Danbatta as saying.
“They both met the deadline of February 24, 2022, as set by the Commission.
“Arising from this and on behalf of the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, the Board and Management of the NCC, I wish to congratulate the MTN and Mafab for this feat, as we look forward to accomplishing other deployment timelines in the 5G deployment roadmap, as articulated in the National Policy on 5G Networks for Nigeria’s Digital Economy.”
Danbatta explained that aside from the $273.6 million payment, MTN paid an extra $15.9 million for the preferred Lot 1 (3500-3600 Megahertz-MHz) in the 3.5Ghz spectrum, while Mafab Communications settled with Lot 2 (3700-3800Mhz) at no extra cost.
For meeting the payment deadline, Danbatta commended the two companies for their commitment.
According to him, this was a demonstration of sound regulatory environment in the Nigerian telecommunications sector.
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