MTN Group has announced its Nigeria business unit has been awarded a 5G licence in Africa’s most populous country. MTN is already the largest wireless provider on the continent, and this will enable the company to supply better and faster internet connectivity to more businesses and consumers. MTN Nigeria Communications won one of the two licences on offer at the auction on Monday, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission. The second was granted to Mafab Communications, beating Bharti Airtel’s Africa unit to it.
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The bidding was intense with massive competition from various players in the market. MTN Nigeria had to stretch all the way to the 11th auction round where they ended up paying $275.9 million, or R4.4 billion, which was well above the original reserve price of $197.4 million.
According to Nigerian minister of communications Isa Pantami, the populous country aims to deploy 5G over major urban areas of the country and become Africa’s biggest network for the spectrum by 2025. “This technology will go a long way in supporting our security institutions who will leverage on it and ensure that we are all secure,” he said.
NCC’s Executive-Chairman, Professor Umar Danbatta, who announced the results, maintained that the commission followed due process for the bidding with the winners expected to pay on February 24, 2022, with the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rate.
Danbatta said, “The auction held successfully today, Monday, December 13, 2021, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja with the three bidders competing for the available two slots. The Commission adopted the Ascending Clock Auction format which ended after Round 11 and proceeded to the Assignment Stage. 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. “Arising from the above, the Winning Bid Price for the Auction is USD$273,600,000 for each lot of 100 MHz TDD.’’
