The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said it generated over N150 billion from spectrum license fees between January and May this year. With this, the Commission has exceeded its projected 2021 revenue of N36 billion from spectrum licensing.

The figure represents over 400 per cent increase in revenue budget performance in respect of spectrum fees generated by the commission in the first five months of the year, reflecting a significant contribution to the revenue drive of the Federal Government.

According to a statement signed by the Director of Public Affairs of the Commission, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, 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 the Commission to remit proceeds from spectrum resources wholly into the government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).

The Commission in its 2021 Budget which was considered and approved by both chambers of the National Assembly in December 2020, projected revenue of N36 billion from spectrum fee for the year 2021 but has remarkably surpassed this estimate.

Over the years, the NCC had put in place an effective regulatory regime that has significantly facilitated advancements in the nation’s telecoms industry, boosted Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and improved the operations of licensees as well as boosted Federal Government’s revenue generation.

Commenting on the revenue performance, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said that the impressive uptick in spectrum fee was the result of the favourable turn of events for the telecoms 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 noted that the 10-year spectrum fees made by some of the major operators directly impacted the projected spectrum fee favourably, adding that the commission believes that enthronement of effective regulation will 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 the NCC 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

(New Telegraph)