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MTN, Africa’s largest mobile operator, may be looking to abandon its recent acquisition of Visafone Communications Limited after the Nigerian Communications Commission decided not to approve the transfer of spectrum as part of the acquisition deal, according to a report by Bloomberg on Monday.

Last week, Prof. Garba Dambatta, NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, told journalists that the telecoms regulator only approved MTN's acquisition of 100 percent shares in Visafone. He further said that the NCC did not approve the sale of Visafone’s spectrum to MTN given its current designation as the dominant operator in Nigeria’s telecoms sector.

People familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg that MTN is now contemplating whether it is fair value to proceed with its Visafone acquisition without the company’s lucrative 800MHz spectrum licence.

In January, MTN announced that it had completed the acquisition of Visafone Communications, which operates under the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, for an undisclosed fee. (Analysts have speculated that the fee was about $220 million).

The acquisition was aimed at giving MTN more capabilities to deliver high-speed 4G Internet services to its over 60 million subscribers.

Visafone is the largest CDMA operator in Nigeria, with over two million subscribers in 24 states. Jim Ovia, the Chairman of Zenith Bank, founded the company in 2007.

The NCC's latest decision would be a blow to MTN, which recently agreed to pay N330 billion to settle a dispute over five million unregistered phone lines.