Danbatta says Nigeria will have widest 5G coverage in Africa, MTN and MAFAB bag 5G licences
MTN and MAFAB COMMUNICATIONS emerged as the winners of the Federal Government’s 5G spectrum auction held yesterday at the Transcorp Hotel in Abuja.
A mock auction was held at the same location to prepare participants for the main event, which was a success.
Using the Ascending Clock Auction System, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) auctioned off two slots in the 3.5 gigahertz (Ghz) 5G spectrum. The auctions were attended by MTN Nigeria, Mafab Communications Ltd, and Airtel Networks Ltd.
The auction was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
The auction for 5G Technology spectrum took place in two stages: the main stage and the assignment stage. The auction began with three bidders at the reserved price of $197.4 million to $199, 374 million and ended in round 10 at $263,017,050.77 million.
The assignment Stage was to determine which operator would take one of the two auctioned lots.
Airtel Networks withdrew from the main stage, leaving MTN and MAFAB COMMUNICATIONS as the bid winners, with a total bid of $273.6 million per lot of 100 MHz TDD.
Winners must pay by February 24th
The outcome of the auction was announced by NCC’s Executive-Chairman, Professor Umar Danbatta.
It is my pleasure to announce that at the end of the auction, Mafab Communications Limited and MTN Communications Nigeria Limited emerged as provisional licence winners.
Prof. Umar Danbatta
He also stated that the commission followed proper bidding procedures and that the winners were expected to pay on February 24, 2022, using the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rate at the time.
The Provisional Licence Winners are expected to pay the Winning Bid Price less the Intention-to-Bid Deposit, by Feb. 24, 2022.
Prof Danbatta congratulated the winners and expressed gratitude to the government for its support and commitment to the deployment of 5G technology in Nigeria.
According to him, the 5G network will provide faster connection speeds, greater mobility, and increased capacity. It will also provide low latency capabilities to the country’s communications services.
Danbatta stated that the NCC will continue to deepen broadband penetration, protect consumers, and deploy smart infrastructure across the country.
Nigeria hopes to have the most widespread 5G coverage in Africa by 2022, and this development is a step in that direction.
The 3.5GHz spectrum auction represents a culmination of all the efforts at the international and national levels that have prepared Nigeria tor this momentous leap toward
Prof Umar Danbatta
