The Commission generated $547.2 million from MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications and remitted same to the federal government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund account domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“We have records available to show that we have been contributing a lot to the coffers of the government and a very good example is when we did that successful 5G auction. The proceeds from the auction go to the coffers of the government.
“We don’t normally take anything. It is gazetted that whenever we sell spectrum, we do not keep the money; we normally transfer this money to the consolidated revenue fund of the government,” said Prof Danbatta.
Today, the Commission is a major financial pillar of the federal government of Nigeria through spectrum and other classes of licences issued by it as well as through payment of Annual Operating Levy paid by telecom licencees.
The Commission’s role and the financial gains it gains it brings to government budget financing and the Nigerian economy at large, has helped in boosting federal government revenue generation especially as the NCC has been classified as a Revenue Generating Agency by the National Assembly rather than as a Government-Owned Enterprise (GOE).
With the new round of 3.5GHz spectrum auction for 5G technology deployment by the NCC under the leadership of the Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Umar Danbatta, the Commission is taking the bull by the horns to deliver more as a regulator and a major driver of the Federal Government’s revenue drive.
What 5G Brings
5G mobile technology is far ahead of previous technology standards. Deployment of this latest mobile technology shows that it brings about delivery of ubiquitous broadband services, allow for real-time communication and improve data transfer, especially upstream speeds.
Already, MTN Nigeria has rolled out its 5G network in seven cities in Nigeria. This new technology which millions of Nigerian telecom consumers are going to experience, brings about 10 times user experience throughput, 10 times connection density, 10 times decrease in latency, three times spectrum efficiency, 100 times traffic capacity and 100 times network efficiency.
In addition to the bandwidth increase for seamless video streaming or the next social application playground, 5G technology supports real-time, ultra-reliable communication between massive numbers of devices.
5G technology has vast possibilities in innovation and transformation, and will immensely improve quality of living, as users gain a better experience of services and technology in general – from financial services, healthcare, education, and even public service delivery to more leisurely purposes, such as video streaming services, gaming and even self-driving cars.
