Nigeria Federal Government Entrusts 3.5HZ Spectrum of the 5G network to NCC
The Nigeria Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, formally handed over the 3.5HZ spectrum of the fifth-generation (5G) network to the Nigeria Communications Commission on Thursday, February 17, 2022, at an event held at the Hilton Hotel in Abuja (NCC).
“We are here today to officially allocate the 3.5GHz frequency band, specifically 3.52GHz to 3.90GHz (or 380 MHz), to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for subsequent assignment to the winners of the 5G Auctioning Process,” Pantami said at the event.
After 176 countries around the world were already using 5G, the administration began a process to make it available in the country in 2021.
Speaking at the event, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of the NCC Board of Commissioners, stated that the coast was clear for the work of making 5G available in the country to proceed.
“We have been meticulous throughout our 5G deployment journey, from trial across selected states in the country, to review and stakeholder engagement, to Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval, to the 3.5GHz spectrum auction, and up to the President’s official launch of the national policy on 5G network.”
“We now have the official allocation of spectrum to the NCC for subsequent assignment to the winners.” “As a result, the coast is clear for the country to assign the specific reference in the spectrum to the winners following payment announcement,” Danbatta said.
This action comes after MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications Ltd were awarded the 5G spectrum bid in December 2021.
According to Premium Times, Pantami stated at the time that “Nigeria will have the widest 5G coverage in Africa” by 2022. Despite the fact that South Africa and Lesotho have had 5G networks since May 2020, and that over 18 African countries have been experimenting with 5G as of February 2021, he made this statement.
While this is a significant move towards the establishment of a 5G network in the country, the journey to seeing it come to fruition is still long, and hard to predict.
