The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has blamed its inability to meet 2023 revenue target on lack of patronage for its auctioned frequencies.

The NCC Director of Financial Services, Mr Yakubu Gontor said this on Tuesday, when he appeared before Senate joint committee interactive session with revenue generating activities on 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

Gontor said as at September, the commission had generated N199.8 billion out of the N387.4 billion revenue projection for 2023.

He said that two frequencies, 600 Mega Hertz (MHz) and 35 Mega Hertz (MHz), were made available for auctioning but there was no patronage for none of them.

This, he said significantly affected the revenue generation of the commission in 2023.

“Our revenue projection from spectrum fee was N387.4 billion, but we ended up earning N199.8 billion as at September 2023, which is a significant difference from the projected revenue.

“We hope to earn more between now and December, but we may not be able to meet budgetary projection.

“This is because frequencies are usually sold through auctions and there are some frequencies that were earmarked for auction during the year.

“However, the auction did not attract the expected patronage. Those frequencies had been reserved for subsequent auctions.”(NAN)