TECHNOLOGY

NCC To Auction 5G Spectrum At N75b

 

…As Unilorin female student, others emerge winners of NCC’s Essay Competition

Ahead of Nigeria’s plan to deployment of 5G technology, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it has pegged the auctioning price of 3.5GHz spectrum to facilitate deployment of 5G in the county at N75 billion.

NCC, Executive Vice-Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta said at the Prize Presentation Ceremony of the 3rd NCC National Essay Competition on 5G technology, on Tuesday in Abuja that the100MHz of the 3.5GHz will cost N75billion.

The EVC disclosed that the auction was software based; adding that provision had been made for manual auction should the auction software fail during the process.

He informed that new entrants were allowed to participate in addition to existing licensees and only licensees with 100 per cent regulatory approval would be allowed to participate in the auction.

“The NCC is at the verge of auctioning Spectrum for the provision of 5G technology, and we decided to take advantage of the moment by motivating challenging our youth to be innovative and as resourceful as their counterparts in advanced countries.

“The controversies surrounding COVID-19 and 5G technology is now in the past.

“I want to reassure you that the economic benefits of 5G to Nigeria post corona virus pandemic will be huge, especially as almost all businesses and activities of government are migrating and offering their services online.

“5G will enable a new kind of network to Nigerians that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices.

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“Nigeria’s vibrant youth population stands to benefit immensely from the deployment of 5G as it will offer technopreneurs, technology enthusiasts, SMEs and Tech-startups platform to expand and network with other global players on a scale that has never been witnessed before.”

In his remarks, NCC’s Director Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde noted that the commission was committed to promoting innovations, research and development.

According to him, “The NCC, as the regulator of Nigeria’s dynamic telecoms industry, recognises the importance of this new technology to the nation’s development. Because of the need to stay ahead of the game, it has become important for the Commission to catch these youth in their prime through the promotion of competitions that arouse their curiosity, and promote innovation and research just like other counterparts in developed countries”.

Meanwhile, winners of the 3rd NCC Essay competition have been announced. They include a year six female Veterinary Medicine student of the University of Ilorin(Unilorin), Gbeja Esther with the 1st position. She was rewarded with N500,000 including Laptop and printer.

Edosa Nosa of the University of Port Harcourt took 2nd position and was rewarded  with the sum of N300,000 while Abdulkarim Nasiru of Oba Femi Awolowo University and Marcpatrick Efeni of the Nigeria Airforce Institute of Technology both took 3rd position, respectively. They were rewarded with the sum of N200, 000 each.

Meanwhile, Prof. Danbatta expressed his delight that 3rd Essay competition titled, “5G Technology: “Opportunities and Challenges” which received close to 1,820 entries from 97 higher institutions of learning across the country with four eventually deserving winners.

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Earlier, the Chairman of the Essay Committee, Engr Edoyemi Ogoh, said that the committee was guided by the Commission’s guiding principles of being fair and upright in following the criteria to determine the winner of the essay writing.

He said that one of the objectives that the commission engaged youths from tertiary institutions across the country was to challenge themselves in the understanding and problem solving imperatives  as well as essential new technologies.

Ogoh noted that NCC was a key Stakeholder in the development and growth of the communications sector in the country.

He said, “The Commission recognises the act of innovative  thinking in growing the communications industry in Nigeria.

“The Commission  engaged the youth to participate in tertiary institutions across the country to challenge themselves in the understanding and problem solving imperatives  as well as essential new technologies, which is one of the objectives  of  the NCC’s in the essay competition.”

Ms. Esther Gbeja, who spoke on behalf of other participants of the essay competition, lauded the NCC and urged Nigerians to be open-minded on the Federal Government 5G technology policy.

Gbeja advised NCC to scale up awareness creation on 5G and collaboration with stakeholders from all walks of life for seamless deployment.

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