The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is considering extending spectrum licence tenures from the customary 10 years to 15 years as part of a proposed framework linking regulatory incentives to additional investment in broadband networks. The proposal would offer operators greater certainty over their spectrum holdings while requiring measurable improvements in coverage, capacity, and service quality.
The longer tenures are one option under the Incentive-Based Spectrum Investment Framework (IBSIF), which the regulator is developing ahead of public consultation. Rather than treating spectrum principally as a source of immediate government revenue, the NCC wants its value to support infrastructure investment that could generate wider economic benefits over time.
“One of the things we want to do is to move the licence from 10 years to 15 years,” officials of the commission said during a briefing on the proposal in Abuja on Thursday, November 12. The NCC said the aim was to give operators greater assurance that they could recover their investments.
The commission has not announced final eligibility rules, a fixed financial incentive or an implementation date. Officials said a consultation paper would be published to gather feedback from industry and the general public before the framework is refined and gradually introduced.
The proposal could reshape Nigeria’s telecom market by testing whether extended access to a valuable public resource can secure network…
