Mafab won 5G 3.5GHz spectrum licenses in a November 2021 auction
Nigeria’s newest mobile operator Mafab Communications announced this week that it has begun its roll out of 5G services in the country’s capital city of Abuja.
According to the company’s founder, Musbahu Bashir, five other cities — Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano and Kaduna — are on the docket for service deployments, with additional sites to be added later. The plan, stated the company, is to ultimately offer nationwide voice and data services.
“The rollout of Mafab[‘s] 5G network is the beginning of immense opportunities for the country as it represents Nigeria’s capabilities and infinite possibilities,” said Bashir. “The prospect of increased job opportunities as a consequence of the value-chain benefits the technology will generate and offer is the dream we have all gathered here to launch today.”
Specifically, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Ali Pantami predicted that the 5G deployments from Mafab and MTN will create roughly 3.6 to 4.8 million jobs in the next 10 years.
“It is only the countries that are able to provide their citizens with the latest network infrastructure which the 5G technology represents, that will also be the ones to thrive in the coming years,” Bashir said. “They will be the ones that will stay competitive and the ones who will lead in innovation in addition to bringing socio-economic benefits to their citizens.”
Mafab won 5G 3.5 GHz spectrum licenses in a November 2021 auction, along with MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria.
