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Nigeria auctioned the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum on the 10th of December 2021, which provided the regulatory platform to deploy the Fifth Generation (5G) mobile technology in September 2022. The launch and ubiquity of use cases of 5G, especially in powering critical services, are driving the need for resilience of 5G among industry, academia, and the government of Nigeria.

5G is an evolution from previous generations of mobile communication technologies. This evolution is usually referred to in a generation like first, second, third, fourth, etc. The key factor for the First Generation (1G) was mobility primarily used for analog voice services while the Second Generation (2G) was an improvement through the digitization of phone calls and enabling Short Message Services (SMS) as well as other basic data services. The Third Generation (3G) was launched in 1998 for a better internet experience (mobile and wireless internet connection). Broadband internet and internet-based applications were enabled on 3.5G while the Fourth Generation (4G), released around 2008 delivered high-speed internet and high-capacity multimedia for images and video.