Segun Ogunsanya, CEO, Airtel Africa, has backed his company’s decision to pull out of Nigeria’s 5G spectrum auction as the bidding surpassed $270 million per operator, claiming the business retained ample capacity to meet customer demand.
In a statement, the executive noted the business case for the new network technology across sub-Saharan Africa was evolving.
Airtel Africa remains “committed to driving broadband capacity in our various markets”, Ogunsanya stated.
He added Airtel Africa would continue to track the 5G ecosystem, pointing to the relevance of affordable handsets supporting the technology and development of locally important use cases.
“Airtel Africa retains ample capacity, spread across various spectrum bands, in Nigeria and its other markets, to continue to meet the growing data demands of our customers for many years to come,” Ogunsanya said.
He added there were: “several potential routes available to the business to deliver even greater capacities, cost-effectively, in the long run”.
His comments follow the conclusion of Nigeria’s auction of 5G-suitable spectrum earlier this week where MTN Group and Mafab Communications won the two allocations on offer for $273.6 million each.
