The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has contrary to an online report suggesting that it incurred a deficit of N17 billion in 2021, the Commission recorded a surplus of N47.97 billion, even after
remitting an Operating Surplus/Spectrum Fees of estimated N197.7bn to the Federal Government.

While describing the report as total falsehood, though the Statement of the Financial Performance of the Commission for the period ended December 2021, clearly indicates that the sum of N17.3bn was a “Surplus/(Deficit) retained for the period)”, this does not imply that the Commission incurred a cash deficit as the expenditure in its financials were both in cash and accruals applicable to the year.

A statement by NCC spokesperson, Reuben Muoka blame the erroneous report on poor interpretation of financial statement on the part of the online medium while urging it to seek for confirmation before publishing wrong figures, capable of inciting the public and relevant stakeholders against the Commission.

Mouka said, “if the publication had inquired of the constituents of our expenditure, it would have learnt that the expenditures for the year 2021 included accruals for items undergoing procurement at the end of the year, like the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative, SABI, being implemented by the Commission, which was standing in the sum of about N24bn in the financial report.

“The Commission also remitted an Operating Surplus/Spectrum Fees of estimated N197.7bn to the Federal Government, under the same Financial Performance Reporting period, and had a bank balance of about N46.97bn, erasing any doubt that there was any deficit spending”.