The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday affirmed that MAFAB Communications, one of the companies granted Fifth Generation (5G) licences, had rolled out Fifth Generation (5G) network in the country.
The industry regulator’s Director, Public Affairs, Reuben Mouka, , in a statement maintained that the clarification became necessary following some misleading comments on social media which falsely insinuated that “MAFAB Communications, one of the companies granted Fifth Generation (5G) licences by the Commission is yet to roll out the service, nearly two years after obtaining a licence, and one year after the roll-out date.”
He stated: “For a fact, MAFAB Communications is one of the two successful companies that won a 5G Licence during the globally-acclaimed transparent 5G Auction conducted by the Commission on December 13, 2021.
“Upon fulfilling the condition of payment for the fee of $273.6 million in February 2022, the company formally received the licence on February 22, 2022.
“Consequent upon the issuance of the 5G licence, and in line with the rollout conditions, MAFAB publicly launched its services in Abuja on January 24, 2023, and in Lagos on January 26, 2023. At launch, the services were targeted at six cities – Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano and Kaduna”, Mouka added.
While maintaining that the commission has continued to monitor the progress of roll-out by MAFAB and has been regularly briefed about the status of infrastructure deployment for service offerings as conditioned in its operating licence, the Director advised that “the public and all stakeholders should ignore the false and misleading information concerning the 5G roll-out by MAFAB.”
