NCC earns N150bn from spectrum licence fees in five months

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it generated N150 billion from spectrum licence fees between January and May 2021.

This was announced in a statement signed by Ikechukwu Adinde, NCC director of public affairs, on Sunday.

According to the statement, the commission said it surpassed its N36 billion projected revenue from the spectrum fees for 2021.

NCC said the figure represents over 400 percent increase in revenue budget performance in respect of spectrum fees generated by the commission in five months.

It said this reflects a significant contribution to the revenue drive of the federal government.

The commission said the N150 billion spectrum revenue achieved in the first half of the year has been remitted to the federal government in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003, which mandates it to remit proceeds from spectrum resources wholly into the government’s consolidated revenue fund (CRF).

Commenting on the revenue performance, Umar Danbatta, NCC executive vice chairman, said the uptick in spectrum fee was 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.

Danbatta said the 10-year spectrum fees made by some of the major operators directly impacted the projected spectrum fee favourably, adding that NCC believes that enthronement of effective regulation will continue to improve the general performance of the telecoms sector.

The statement also read that NCC has put in place an effective regulatory regime, which has significantly facilitated advancements in Nigeria’s telecoms industry, improved the operations of licences, and boosted gross domestic product (GDP) and federal government’s revenue generation.

In October 2020, NCC announced that it generated and remitted N344.71 billion in revenue to the federal government’s CRF in the last five years.