The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has attributed its low revenue generation in 2024 to the failure of telecommunications companies to purchase 5G spectrum licences.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NCC, Aminu Maida, made this disclosure while defending the agency’s 2025 budget before the National Joint Committee on Telecommunications.
He explained that while two major operators already possess 5G spectrum licences, they are underutilizing them.
He further revealed that the third-largest operator, which the NCC had hoped would purchase the licence, declined to do so, citing that it was not the right time to adopt 5G, opting instead to focus on expanding its existing operations.
Also speaking the Director, Financial Services, Yakubu Gontor, revealed that, despite the 50% telecom tariff hike, the NCC may not generate more revenues from spectrum sales this year as the Commission was not able to auction the 5G Spectrum due to market conditions.
“So we were operating on very fine margins. We had one slot to sell and there was only one potential buyer. Because as you know 9 Mobile is currently going through a restructuring of its fortunes” he explained.
He, however, noted that, with the introduction of new technologies including 6G, the federal government could generate a record of over $1 billion in revenue.
On the 2025 budget, the NCC has projected a total revenue of over N272 billion naira, 95.6 billion naira for recurrent, 10.7 billion naira for capital expenditures while over 30 billion naira has been projected for special projects.
He said, “The major component of that revenue is an operating levy of N205.7 billion and spectrum fees of N49.784 billion and then other income. And our total recurrent expenditure projection is N95.668 billion naira and our total projected capital expenditure is N10.735 billion. While for special projects we have N30.13 billion projection.
“Total expenditure both recurrent, capital and special is projected at 136.534 billion. We project to remit to the CRF 120.836 billion while we project to remit to the Universal in 2025. Those are the highlights of our project projections for 2025”.
Presenting the 2024 budget performance the Chief Executive Officer confirmed that, the Commission has generated N195.8 billion naira revenue in of which N111 billion was remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
He told the committee that the Commission had targeted to earn N292.3 billion in the fiscal year but missed the target largely due to its inability to auction one slot of the 5G Spectrum.
Speaking, the Co- Chairman of the Committee, Senator Aliyu Ikrah Bilbis, said, the submissions of the NCC has allowed members of the Committee to ask questions as well as help the Commission improve in its operations in 2025.
COV : TSIBIRI
