NCC sets up committee to auction 3.5 GHz band for 5G deployment

LAGOS, Nigeria – The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC  has set up a committee to auction the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) band for 5G deployment in Nigeria. The Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta made the revelation while speaking during the Nigeria e-Government Summit 2021 held recently in Lagos.

Danbatta said details of the auction will be announced in due course and that the NCC is currently updating the National Frequency Allocation Table (NFAT) to achieve more efficient spectrum allocation and usage to reflect World radio communications Conference (WRC)-19 recommendations.

He declared that the update of the spectrum allocation table is among several other initiatives being implemented by NCC to ensure efficient use of spectrum resource in the country.

Represented by the Commission’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, Danbatta stated that the NCC has been working assiduously with all stakeholders to deepen penetration of broadband infrastructure and services which support the growth of e-Governance and other critical digital economy objectives throughout Nigeria.

The EVC of NCC said the Commission recently unveiled its second Strategic Vision Plan (SVP)- 2021-2025, which enables it to effectively align with efforts of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020-2030; the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025, and other digital economy polices and global best practices.

“Leveraging on the successes we achieved under our previous SVP, we are repositioning both the Commission and the entire industry to facilitate the availability of solid infrastructure and to proliferate digital platforms that effectively and efficiently enable digital inclusion throughout Nigeria,” he said.

Highlighting some of the activities of the Commission geared towards ensuring accessibility to efficient and affordable network infrastructure to power e-Government and other digital economy initiatives in the country, Danbatta, pointed out that, following the presidential approval of the Fifth Generation (5G) Policy, the NCC has developed a 5G Deployment Plan for Nigeria’s digital economy.

Meanwhile, the EVC has said the task of attracting investments into the broadband infrastructure space is a collective responsibility. Thus, he called for increased collaboration of all stakeholders in other to remove barriers to investment which include multiple taxation and regulation, arbitrary pricing of bottleneck resources such as Right-of-Way (RoW), time-consuming and unfriendly approval processes.

“These factors discourage investments in digital infrastructure and reduce the speed at which we provide our people with access to seamless digital service infrastructure for e-Governance and other services,” Danbatta emphasised.

The summit titled, “e-Government: Opportunities and Challenges” was organised by DigiServe Network Services Limited, in partnership with NCC, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON).

Earlier, Executive Chairman, DigiServe Network Services, Lanre Ajayi, in his opening address, said with the advent of democracy, expectations of citizens from governments are higher because citizens rate their governments largely on how efficient and effective government services are delivered to them.

“Hence, e-Government, which is essentially about the deployment of technologies in government processes and service delivery to citizens, provides immense opportunities for governments to deliver services to citizens most effectively and efficiently,” he said.