MTN Nigeria Plc and Mafab Communications Ltd have emerged the two successful winners of the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum auction for the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) technology to support the delivery of universal broadband services in Nigeria.

In a statement, the Director of Public Affairs at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, revealed that the winners emerged after 11 rounds of bidding that lasted eight hours on Monday in Abuja.

“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,” he said. “The three companies had also participated in a mock auction held on Friday, December 10, 2021, which served as a precursor to the Main Auction conducted today (Monday, December 13, 2021).

“In an exercise that clearly demonstrated demand outstripping supply, with ascending clock auction system adopted by the commission, the three bidders participated in the intensely competitive auction bid.”

“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 $263,700,050.00 at the Round 10 of the auction exercise,” Adinde narrated.

According to him, 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 NCC spokesman said 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.