The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has put up another two slots of spectrum in the 3.5GHz Spectrum band for auction before end of 2022, to boost deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) services in Nigeria.
The process, which was made public on October 21, 2022 with the publication of the Draft Information Memorandum (IM) for the auction on the Commission’s website, invited stakeholders to study the Memorandum for purposes of making submissions ahead of a review of the IM on 16th November 2022.
The final IM is slated for publication on December 18, 2022, while applications will be received by the Commission from November 21, 2022. The closing date for the submission of application, the deadline for payment of mandatory Intention-To-Bid Deposit (IBD), and the Pre-Qualification Stage is set for 5th December 2022.
Qualified bidders would be notified on December 5, 2022 while notification and publication of the Mock Auction and Auction date will occur on the same day. The Mock Action is billed for December 16, 2022 just as the Auction proper takes place three days later, on December 19, 2022.
The process is anticipated to enter its grant stage on December 21, 2022 with the publication of provisional bid winners and the notification of provisional award of licence.
The year 2023 will open with the payment for Spectrum Licence and Operational Licence, where applicable, on January 20, 2023 and on the of January 23, 2023 the auction process will be concluded with the publication of the result.