MTN, Mafab: FG rakes in $547.2m from 5G spectrum auction

The Federal Government is raking in $547,200,000 from the sales of two spectrum slots for the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) technology.

After 11 rounds of bidding that lasted eight hours on Monday, Mafab Communications Ltd. and MTN Nigeria have emerged the two successful winners of the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum auction.

Three companies, namely MTN, Airtel and Mafab Communications Limited, had qualified for the auction, having met the requirements stipulated in the Information Memorandum (IM) for the spectrum auction.

The three bidders participated in the intensely competitive auction bid conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Monday place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

In the First Round of the auction, the bid price was fixed at $199,374,000.00; $201,367,740.00 at Second Round; $204,388,356.10 at Third Round; $209,407,962.50 at Fourth Round and $215,782,901.30 at the Fifth Round.

The auction prices increased progressively to $224,414,217.43 at the Sixth Round; $231,146,643.96 at the Seventh Round; $240, 392,509.71 at the Eighth Round; $251, 210,172.65 at the Ninth Round; and $263,700,050 at the Round 10 of the auction exercise.

The auction process reached its peak at Round 11 when the bid price graduated to $275,904,886.25 with all the three bidders still actively participating.

The Main Stage of the Auction, however, ended at the conclusion of the 11th Round, with Airtel listing an exit bid of $270,000,000, while MTN posted an exit bid of $273,000,000, giving way to the Assignment Stage.

At this point, Airtel had dropped off from the race having posted a lower exit bid, thus leaving Mafab and MTN as winners of the two available lots.

Announcing the results of the Auction exercise, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC and Auction Overseer, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said: “The Commission adopted the Ascending Clock Auction format which ended after Round 11 and proceeded to the Assignment Stage. It is my pleasure to announce that at the end of the auction, Mafab Communications Limited and MTN Communications Nigeria Limited emerged as provisional licence winners,” he said.

Danbatta said that the winning bid price for the auction is $273,600,000 for each lot of 100 MHz TDD and the provisional winners are expected to pay the Winning Bid price, less the Intention-to-Bid Deposit, by February 24, 2022.

He expressed satisfaction that the auction process was efficient, fair, credible, well-organised and transparent and was designed to deliver the ideal outcome.

Danbatta said in line with the processes outlined in the IM, the provisional winners have proceeded to the Assignment Stage.

“MTN Communications Nigeria Plc made an offer of $15,900,000 for the assignment of a preferred Lot, while Mafab Communications Limited made an offer of $11,120,000 for a preferred Lot. Thence, MTN Communications Nigeria Plc, having made the highest offer was given the right to select its most preferred Lot and it selected Lot 1 (3500-3600 MHz), while Lot 2 (3700-3800 MHz) is consequentially assigned to Mafab Communications Limited at no extra cost,” the EVC said.