The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, on Tuesday said that its attention has been drawn to an online publication with a headline titled: “NCC Incurs a deficit of N17bn, spending N35.2bn on personnel, consultancy fees”.

NCC said it is concerned with the inability of the online publication to accurately interpret the contents of its 2021 Annual Reports which have been made public.

The commission said as a result, the publication gave a wrong impression that it (NCC)incurred a N17bn deficit because of expenditures on personnel and consultancy fees, adding that this is far from the truth.

The commission said though the Statement of the Financial Performance of the Commission for the period ended December 2021 and clearly indicated that the sum of N17.3bn was a “Surplus/(Deficit) retained for the period)”, this does not imply that the Commission incurred a cash deficit as the expenditure in its financials were both in cash and accruals applicable to the year.

“If the publication had inquired of the constituents of our expenditure, it would have learnt that the expenditures for the year 2021 included accruals for items undergoing procurement at the end of the year, like the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative, SABI, being implemented by the Commission, which was standing in the sum of about N24bn in the financial report,” a statement from the commission on Tuesday said.

The NCC said it further remitted an Operating Surplus/Spectrum Fees of estimated N197.7bn to the Federal Government, under the same Financial Performance Reporting period, and had a bank balance of about N46.97bn, erasing any doubt that there was any deficit spending.

The commission, “disclaims the wrong impression created by the above headline, and subsequent misinterpretation of our financial report in the publication may have had in the minds of the public, and stakeholders,” the statement added.

The commission reiterated its commitment to effective and transparent processes in all its regulatory, management and financial activities.