Airtel Africa’s Nigerian subsidiary acquired 100MHz of spectrum in the 3500MHz frequency and 2x5MHz of 2600MHz from the Nigerian Communications Commission in a $316.7 million transaction, as it readies 5G rollout in the country.

The operator noted the purchase of the additional spectrum will solidify its position in the domestic market and bolster connectivity to support Nigeria’s digital economy agenda, including digitalisation in enterprises and public sector.

CEO of Airtel Africa Segun Ogunsanya said “5G is critical to these ambitions, and we look forward to launching new services to drive further digitalisation across the country, facilitate economic progress and transform lives across Nigeria”.

Airtel Africa believes the deployment of 5G will improve the efficiency of fixed wireless products across the country in line with its ambition to meet targets in the National Broadband Plan, a mandate announced by Nigeria’s presidential committee in 2019 to bolster economic growth.

The operator claimed Nigeria remains its largest market with growing opportunities where the provision of affordable 4G services stimulated “a fourfold increase in data traffic over the last three years”.