MTN, Mafab Communication Pay $273.6m Each For 5G Licence – NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has confirmed the payment of $273.6m each by MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications for 5G spectrum licenses.

Naija News reports that the NCC Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, made this known in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday.

Adinde disclosed that the commission’s Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, has officially confirmed the payment status of the two companies.

Recall that MTN Nigeria and Mafab acquired their 5G spectrum licenses in December 2021 which had a reserve price of $197.4 million for the 3.5GHz band spectrum.

The commission had set February 24 as the deadline for the payment by winners of the spectrum auction.

In the statement, Danbatta also thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for his support and commitment to the deployment of 5G technology in the country.

The statement reads: “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. They both met the deadline of February 24, 2022, as set by the Commission,” Danbatta was quoted as saying.

“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.”

The NCC boss stated that MTN and Mafab will operate the license for two years before the commission issues three more licences.

He said: “I’m not saying the review is in the process as we talk. Not yet; because we want to ensure that these two assigned licences have started operations and are okay.

“Of course, we will give them time to see what plans they have because they need to start implementing their plan for expansion of infrastructure that will support these additional services.

“Everything is on the table, meaning we have so far auctioned two slots. We have three more to go and nothing stops the NCC from assigning the remaining slots.’’