The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, reacted to a section of the media report, saying that one of the bidders for the G5 license, MAFAB, is yet to commence operations, some two years after it was granted the license.

The regulatory body, in a statement issued by the Reuben Muoka, Director Public Affairs, said it is not true that one of the preferred bidder has not launched its services in Nigeria.

Part of the statement reads: “The attention of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been drawn to some misleading comments on social media which falsely claimed 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.”

“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.”

The statement also stated: “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.”

“The Commission has continued to monitor the progress of rollout by MAFAB and has been regularly briefed about the status of infrastructure deployment for service offerings as conditioned in its operating licence.”

The public and all stakeholders should ignore the false and misleading information concerning the 5G rollout by MAFAB.