Anxiety As FG Completes Review Of MTN’s N34bn License

Forum 8 years ago

Anxiety As FG Completes Review Of MTN’s N34bn License

The federal government has concluded the review of the 700MHz spectrum license sale to MTN Nigeria by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

An official of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) told Daily Trust that the spectrum sale may be cancelled following the ongoing probe into the activities of NBC.

However, NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Umar Danbatta on Friday told journalists in Abuja that the Frequency Management Council would soon wind up its review and make the outcome public.

He said:? “The Frequency Management Council has indeed intervened and the sale is being revisited and very soon the Nigerian public would be informed about this very important intervention.”

Danbatta, who had earlier received the Secretary of the African Telecommunications Union, AbdoulKarim Soumaila, added that the NCC would not join issue with NBC in public on the matter “but we intend to avail ourselves of existing mechanism for arbitration and mediation through the Frequency Management.”

The NBC Director General Emeka Mba was arrested on Monday by the operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly operating a secret account into which about N17 billion out of N34 billion paid by MTN Nigeria for the 700MHz license was kept.