The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said it was not forced to move the November 24 deadline for the submission of the bid and payment of the ten percent fee of $20 million after it emerged that only MTN Nigeria had complied with the requirement.
The commission was responding to a BusinessDay story on Tuesday which explained the reason behind the moving of the deadline and the eventual emergence of three qualified bidders including MTN, Airtel, and Mafab Communications Limited.
As a prelude to auctioning the 5G spectrum, the NCC said it had gone through several processes to ensure transparency. For example, on October 7, 2021, the commission released the Draft Information Memorandum (IM) on the auction of the 5G spectrum and issued a public notice in major media channels. Comments on the draft IM were received by the commission until October 28, 2021.
The commission also said it held a stakeholders’ engagement forum in Lagos on November 3, which was focused on comments received from the major operators. On November 10, the NCC published the final IM, and stakeholders’ comments thereon on its website and national dailies, and set the deadline for the submission of bids on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.
Read Also: How NCC moved 5G deadline after only MTN submitted bid
According to the NCC, just a day before the deadline for the submission of bids, air traffic controllers went on strike, disrupting flight operations in Lagos. The commission said that MTN had reached out with concerns about the air traffic controllers’ strike disrupting its timely submission of bids.
“As a responsive regulator, and following concerns expressed by industry stakeholders and potential bidders for the 5G Spectrum, including MTN, about the possibility of meeting the deadline in light of the flight disruptions, the Commission, relying on the provision of the IM, announced an extension of the deadline from Wednesday, November 24, to Monday, November 29,” the NCC said.
The commission on December 1, finally announced the close of the bid submission date of November 29. Three companies, namely MTN Nigeria, Mafab Communications Limited, and Airtel Networks Limited were also announced the qualified bidders haven submitted their bids in line with the requirements of the IM.
BusinessDay had also pointed out that Mafab was a relatively unknown company. The company was incorporated in July 2020, and granted licence by the NCC. The company’s website has no information about its leadership. The NCC noted that according to its IM, new entrants were welcome to participate in the bid and if they are successful, The commission will issue the entry an operating licence in line with the extant provision of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003 and its licencing regulations.
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