FG rakes in N92bn from spectrum sales, license renewal in one year

The Federal Government has generated N91.5billion from spectrum sales and telecom license renewal between September 2015 and September this year, findings from Daily Trust have shown. The Minister of Communications, Barrister Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, had said on Friday at the 4th National Council on Communication Technology in Kaduna that the government generated only N500million between […]

The Federal Government has generated N91.5billion from spectrum sales and telecom license renewal between September 2015 and September this year, findings from Daily Trust have shown.

The Minister of Communications, Barrister Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, had said on Friday at the 4th National Council on Communication Technology in Kaduna that the government generated only N500million between November 2015 and September this year from  sales and renewal of 668 spectrum licenses.

 But Daily Trust’s findings showed that a total of N91bn was paid by MTN Nigeria within the period.

In November 2015, the South African telco paid $94.2m (N40bn) to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to renew its operating license till 2021.

Before that, in September, it paid N34bn to acquire the 700MHZ spectrum license from the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

And in June this year, the telco paid another N18.96bn to get the 2.6GHz license.     

The Ministry of Communications, according to Shittu, also issued and renewed a total of 668 licenses from November 2015 to September 2016, generating about N500 million as government revenue.

The FG had licensed six new slots of the 2.6 MHz Spectrum for the deployment of 4G-LTE services in its efforts to broaden broadband penetration in Nigeria, he said.

He did not disclose how much was realised from sales of the six new slots of 2.6MHz. 

He further disclosed that processes have commenced for the licensing of broadband services on the 5.4 GHz spectrum bank and allocation of 70/80 GHz band (E-Band).