Meet The Man Behind 16 Months Old Mafab That Defeated Airtel To Acquire 5G License

Mafab Communications Limited which has existed for only 16 months will pay a whopping $273m to acquire one of the slots of Nigeria’s 3.5 GHz Spectrum for the deployment of 5G..

The Nigerian Communications Commission conducted a bid for the three companies that met its bidding requirement for the auction which took place on Monday.

Airtel Networks Limited, Mafab Communications Limited and MTN Communications Nigeria Limited competed in the bid.

Globacom (Glo) and 9Mobile surprising did not meet the requirement according to the NCC.

The winning bid price for the auction was $273,600,000 for each lot of 100 MHz TDD, NCC said in a statement seen by THE WHISTLER.

But there are questions on the capacity of Mafab who has only 16 months to acquire and exploit the 3.5 GHz spectrum for the deployment of 5G in the company.

Mafab and MTN won the bid and are required to pay $273.6m by February 24, 2022.

As of the time of filing the report, Mafab’s website has exceeded its Bandwidth Limit, THE WHISTLER can confirm.


Mafab Communications Website Exceeds Bandwith Limit/Credit: Mafab Website
“Bandwidth Limit Exceeded. The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later,” the website read at 9:20 am on Tuesday.


Mafab’s registered office is at No. 8A Ibiyinka Olorunbo Close, Off Amodu Ojikutu Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

This is according to the company’s CAC document seen by THE WHISTLER.

The CAC document revealed that the company is a new entrant in the telecommunication sector with the date of registration being on July 8, 2020.

Dr Musbahu Mohammad Bashir, Chairman of Althani Group owns Mafab and he is one the persons with significant control.

Bashir is a board member of Jaiz Bank. He is also a Director in the following companies, Bento Drill Nigeria Limited 1995, Offshore Technologies International Limited 1995, and Resource Capital Group 1995.

The businessman is also the Chairman of Cobalt International Services Limited, a pre-shipment Inspection Agent for dry goods and bulk liquid cargoes.

Bashir’s Altani Group
Mafab Communications is a subsidiary of Altani Group incorporated to operate International Data Access Service Service.

The company provides international gateway for interconnection of voice, video and data service termination between and also provides a platform for worldwide interconnectivity.

Another subsidiary under the Group is Malband Communications Ltd.

Malband undertakes ICT Consultancy services, e-learning research, data processing and has the NCC licence for Value Added Services.

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