The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has recorded over N150 billion revenue from spectrum license fees for 2021 in the first five months of the year.
By this development, the commission has exceeded its N36 billion projected revenue for the entire year by over 400 per cent increase in revenue budget performance in respect of spectrum fees.
Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, Director, Public Affairs, NCC, made this known in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
According to him, the N150 billion spectrum revenue achieved in the first half of the year had been remitted to the government in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003.The NCC has over the years put in place an effective regulatory regime that has significantly facilitated advancements in the nation’s telecoms industry and has consistently boosted the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and improved the operations of licensees.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, described the spectrum revenue growth as the result of the favourable turn of events for the telecom sector, which at the time of preparing the estimates for the 2021 Budget of the Commission was not clear due to the ravaging impact of COVID-19 on the global economy.
The NCC boss said the 10-year spectrum fees made by some of the major operators directly impacted the projected spectrum fee favourably, adding that the Commission believed that enthronement of effective regulation would continue to improve the general performance of the telecoms sector.
On October 28, 2020, Danbatta told members of the House Committee on Telecommunications while on an oversight function to the Commission that the NCC had generated and remitted N344.71 billion to the Federal Government’s CRF in the last five years.
During the oversight visit, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Akeem Adeyemi commended NCC’s Management for the feat and urged the Commission “to sustain its regime of effective regulation of the telecoms sector in a manner that would be more mutually beneficial to the industry stakeholders, including the consumers of the telecoms services, the operators and the Nigerian government.”
