The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has fixed the reserve price for its new 5G spectrums at $273.60 million.

The NCC, in a memorandum titled ‘Information Memorandum on 3.5 GHz Spectrum Auction’, said it will auction two 100MHz in the 3.5GHz Spectrum Band, for a 10-year license tenure.

“The Reserve Price (RP) is the minimum price for one Lot of 100MHz TDD for a ten (10) year license tenure fixed at Two Hundred and Seventy-Three Million and Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only (US$273,600,000.00) or its equivalent in Naira at the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rates at the time of the auction.

“The fee for the ten (10) year Spectrum License will be determined at the Auction. The Opening Bid will be an increment higher than the Reserve Price in the Opening Round of the Auction.

“A successful bidder at the Auction will be expected to pay a sum equal to the amount of the winning bid minus the IBD, as well as an operational License fee (where applicable),” the Commission stated.

The 5G spectrum licensing kicked off in May with only two successful bidders. The NCC added that a draft Information Memorandum (IM) has been developed to support the attainment of its objective through an auction process.

“The commission will hold a Public Consultation in respect of the draft IM on November 15, 2022.

“This is in line with the commission’s participatory rule-making process for the communications sector, to give stakeholders and interested parties an opportunity to review and comment on the draft IM before the final document is published,” it said.

Though the NCC explained that applicants do not have to be licensed network operators in Nigeria but will need a unified access service license (UASL) if their bid is successful, there is concern that finding a bidder will be difficult for the Commission.

In May, the Commission issued final letters of award of 5G licenses to MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications Limited after they successfully secured the auction with $273.6 million each. MTN in August rolled out its 5G mobile network but Mafab missed the rollout date and got a five-month extension from the NCC.

The NCC had selected three companies, including Airtel late last year, as finalists in the 5G auction. However, Airtel failed to secure the license, leaving only MTN and Mafab as the licensees.

It thus casts doubt that there are still financially capable bidders left — unless the Commission is counting only firms outside the telecom industry.

“It may feel as if everything has gone online, but 90% of purchases still happen in person” – Stripe. That is from Stripe, one of the world’s largest payment companies, valued at least $70 billion.

Add this – “According to research done by The Fletcher School and Mastercard, of the $301 billion of funds flow from consumers to businesses in Nigeria, 98 percent is still based on cash”  – and you get the clear picture that money is still in the meatspace and not yet in the cyberspace. Yet, while we are transiting into the digital space, you cannot ignore where the money is at the moment.

Indeed, as you march to the online world, never forget that we all live in the physical world. Have an offline strategy!

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Comment: Subjective data. Apart from trust and security concerns, few people use stripe and PayPal even in USA. Greater number of payments go through direct bank transfers. Aliexpress, Walmart, Amazon, Flipkart and EBay sales report would be objective and reliable.

My Response: What is subjective in their data? Just curious why you began with that generalization. On “Aliexpress, Walmart, Amazon, Flipkart and EBay sales report would be objective and reliable,” what do you mean by that line on the topic of paying in person and online? In eBay and Amazon, there is no option to pay in person while in Walmart, most have to go to the stores to pay. How do those companies provide objectivity and reliability on Stripe data?

Further comment: prof. Amazon has different payment options for different locations, in many places they do allow pay in person. Besides, Amazon and other big market places have their own payment wallets linked directly to local banks why would they use stripe? EBay works more as an auction marketplace than conventional ecommerce, so the payment method is a kind of escrow for trust and fast fulfilment.

Stripe and Paypal are just few among many payment processing companies for online merchants and sellers.

Due to cash freeze and other stringent measures very few people use them. People use other payment options like payoneer, payza etc.. So stripe can’t authoritatively make such presumptive claim based on an experience in a particular geolocation. What could be more subjective than that.

It would be more objective when customers data from various ecommerce marketplaces, banks and other cash processing companies are taken into cognizance.

My Response: Amazon uses Stripe to process payment. Ebay uses Paypal. Walmart uses Stripe. These payments have POS which means Stripe collects offline payments. In that email, Stripe is asking me to accept its POS and NFC system so that we can collect in-person payment in my company in the US. 

I do not understand your comparison. That you pay in Amazon or eBay with a card does not mean they process payments. Stripe processed over $640 billion in 2021. Some of those for Walmart and Amazon. Paypal does more than a trillion dollars. 

You cannot say that a company which processes $640 billion in the largest economy in the world is speculating.

One of the most magical experiences in America is how you can join their systems and through institutions they have developed, over time, you will begin to see dramatic improvements in whatever that you are doing. You get in as a PhD student, largely knowing not much, but 4-5 years, you become a thought-leader and an expert with new ideas in that domain. Take it or leave it, across many domains, anybody can be anything because the institutions already established ensure that many management and operating  risks are eliminated.

Nigerians hailed when we had A-stars of the Obasanjo era. The question remains: if they departed and things suddenly returned to the old state, what is the end-point then? Take the issuance of international passports. They were so effective that you could take the photo and get the passport on the same day. But that extremely efficient system has gone.

Why? What happened to the system within the immigration service ? Why did someone disband a great process? So, if we can take forward 10 steps and suddenly move back 12 steps, what should be the strategy, going forward? I visited a university in Nigeria. I was told that only a center run by the wife of the VC could coordinate external  events. If you have a conference, the center must be paid to coordinate and manage it. But that was not the way it used to be. So, what happened to the old process?

It does seem like the next Nigerian president must think deeper on how we can build resilient institutions instead of thinking that humans can do magic? Otherwise, you can do the magic and a few years ahead, things will fall back to level zero.

Indeed, we need a leader who can build sustainable institutions in the nation. Through that playbook, we can keep improving, step by step, on our processes. Today, we have mainly human-centric elements and the systems are vulnerable as great A-stars can “hide” poor processes, but over time, things will blow up, revealing internal defects. Yes, we do not need to have super-humans to thrive. We need resilient institutions which common people like us can run.  The next president must have that memo.

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Comment 1: Yes, we need institutions in Nigeria not strong men as Barack Obama once told a gathering of African leaders but our current crop of politicians do not understand that, they try to build selfish structures that serve very narrow interests. They only realise too late in the day when they have left the system and a new emperor have been crowned. We do not have a fit for purpose civil service but the civil servants are always on the watch out if the new sheriff wants to change things, if not they will “show you the way” we need not only a president with the will and intention but also legislators and higher cadre civil servants who want professionalism to reign.

It happens, CR is undergoing a painful decline. He refused to come in as a substitute in the ManU premiership league game against Tottenham Hotspur. He has even been banished from his teammates. Some of the things which made him a legend are accelerating his decline.

As the world celebrated his transfer from Juventus to ManU in August 2021, I wrote that CR was not the right player for ManU.

“Ronaldo is a legend. He scored more than 80 goals in Italy in 3 years. But under him Juventus degraded. Before his arrival, Juve was easily winning the league – 9 straight! In Ronaldo’s last session, the Old Lady was 4th. Notice that they made no progress on the Champions League: lost to Ajax in quarterfinals and last 16 to Lyon and Porto. Largely, Juve won only one knockout game with him. Not his fault except that he was in the midst!

“Ronaldo will score many goals at Old Trafford. But scoring goals without creating goals or having others who do, will rarely win the Champions League. He scored many goals in Italy, winning the battle but if you check, he lost the war. I do think that ManU needs a different type of player.” 

CR scored goals –  24 goals in all competitions – last season for ManU but ManU won nothing of value or position. CR thrives when teams are built around him: he becomes the operating system and he delivers with clinical finishes. But in the last three years, football is moving away from that style: high-intensity, high-pressing, and high coverage are the new components of the game with the superstar tactical enclave diminishing especially in premiership. From Liverpool to Manchester City, you see a team, not a club, built around any person!

CR belongs to the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time) club but what he needs to thrive is not available in ManU. I expect him to leave in the January transfer window.

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Comment 1:  Cristiano Ronaldo received great fanfare arriving in Manchester United and deservedly so.
In his first season, he was the club’s top scorer. I find this analysis faulty because it does not align with reality.
Ronaldo gave up a transfer to Manchester City to come to Manchester United. He could have easily taken a cynical decision and probably assured of a medal and trophy in his final playing days. However, he decided to pitch his lot with a struggling club. The manager was having issue and the club ownership and management were determined to made mediocre decisions. Ronaldo was the not only the right player for United at the time but one that give up somethings on his return to the club.

My Response: There is no need for emotion. When I wrote that piece in Aug 2021, you possibly put a similar comment. In a football analysis, we look for hardware. I did not say he was not a nice person to his former club. I did not say he did not turn down offers. I did not say he will not make ManU more money (I wrote that TV rights will rise if you click). I did write that he would score many goals. Yet, I concluded that  he was NOT the right person for the club to rise.

Comment 2: You are wrong Sir. Football is an Eleven man game. CR7 is a sticker whose main duty is to score goals and he has been efficient in that, both in Juventus and Manchester united for the past seasons. Yes his performance has declined over the years but to say he is the reason for the team poor results is totally wrong. Since he left Juventus last year, did they win the trophy??.

My Response: When you read my posts, you need to pay attention to all the words. When CR came to ManU, I wrote that he would score MANY goals, but I also noted that he was the wrong person. From your comment – “CR7 is a striker whose main duty is to score goals”- we agree that he can score goals and that he is doing a great job by scoring goals. The confusion in your comment is thinking that I am saying that CR is not a great footballer.

I called him a GOAT and a legend; he is peerless. My focus is not him but his team (ManU) winning anything of value. I said if ManU wants to win, it has to choose a different player because in the league recently, the winning teams run on high-intensity, high-coverage, high-pressing etc which do not work well for CR. This is not that CR is a bad player. This is saying how he plays will not suit ManU in a league which has changed.

What does that mean? CR scored 18 league goals for ManU last year. If you check the top 20 scorers, Man City, Liverpool, etc had many players with at least 10 goals. ManU had no other player except CR in the top 20. While that is not his fault, that is a team problem. Liverpool could be recording about 44 goals from in-20 top scorers. That is how you win modern premiership!

Comment to Response 1: Sir, I see your point. But it is also to be noted that some of this has to do with management problem as points to signing. The club needs not just one person that can score goals or make assist. It needs close to 5. Currently, ManU don’t even players who can average a goal in 2 matches.

Also I want note here that Ten Hag is not doing a good job managing the Ronaldo case. He said he had plans for the team with Ronaldo in it and then in matches he leaves Ronaldo sitting on the bench all through. He even makes him warm up and then does not substitute him. The last match he made him warm up and didn’t even make an attempt to bring him but brought in another player. I hear people saying Ronaldo didn’t want to come on. But Ten Hag didn’t even make the attempt to even bring him after letting him warm up, yet he told the sport world and English media he had plans that featured Ronaldo in it. In all of this, I think it is very disrespectful to treat a man who has made his mark in the round leather game this. Albeit, I am not condoning Ronaldo’s action on Wednesday but he is frustrated at the moment and the manager is the cause of it all.

Comment to Response 2: Let’s make a comparison at the games CR7 started this season and how Manchester United performed or won vs the ones he was on the bench and Manchester United performed or won. The answers are clear and obvious.

Just back track and see for yourself. Age is catching up with him.

I support Manchester United, but I didn’t support CR7’s move last year. I knew the team’s performance would deteriorate because he loves the team built around him and him having all the accolades.

Football style has changed beyond that now.

Ten Hag is trying to build a team that isn’t centered around any individual. You perform well, and you play. You don’t perform well and you’re dropped. Haven’t you noticed Malacia and even ‘almighty Maguire (a whole captain) have been benched until his injuries.

CR7 is getting older and he has to wake up to the reality that he may be able to be at his peak like other times. That means game time would reduce.

Was he not in certain earlier games for 90 minutes? What was his major contribution in those games?