Photo: NCC boss, Danbatta
Nigeria’s telecommunications regulatory agency, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and Airtel Nigeria, one of the country’s key players in the sector are enmeshed in a war of words over the renewal of the operating license of Airtel.
While Airtel claims that the license has been renewed for another ten years, NCC says the Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) of Airtel Nigeria is yet to be renenwed.
NCC’s Director of Public Communications, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, in a statement in Abuja, refuted the claim by the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Airtel Nigeria that the operating licence of Airtel has been approved for 10 years.
It explained that the application by Airtel for its license renewal was actually still undergoing “required regulatory process.”
The statement reads in full: “The attention of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been drawn to a recent statement on an online publication credited to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Olusegun Ogunsanya, to the effect that the mobile operating licence of Airtel has been renewed by the Commission for another period of 10 years.
“Mr. Ogunsanya was quoted to have made the statement while speaking in Lagos on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, during the media launch of Airtel’s corporate social responsibility programme, ‘Touching Lives 6’.
“The Commission wishes to state that while Airtel Nigeria has applied for the renewal of the Unified Access Service (UASL) Licence granted to it by the Commission, the application is yet to be approved as it is still undergoing required regulatory process.
“This statement is issued for the guidance of our stakeholders”, the statement added.
