Barring last-minute change of decision on the part of government, MTN Nigeria is expected to pay up the N1.04 trillion imposed on it in the next seven days, New Telegraph learnt yesterday. The telecoms company had been fined $5.2 billion for failing to de-active 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards on its network.
NCC had set November 16 deadline for the telecoms company to pay up the fine. The penalty relates to the timing of the disconnection of 5.1 million subscribers and is based on a charge of N200,000 ($1,005) for each unregistered customer.
“Well, to the best of my knowledge, the November 16 date remains sacrosanct and I am not aware of any decision regarding a change in date,” a top management source, who spoke from Abuja, told New Telegraph yesterday. “So, I want to believe that MTN has just seven days left, up until Monday next week to pay the fine, except there is anything to the contrary in the course of talks this week.”
MTN continues talks with government authorities in Nigeria for a soft landing, a source at MTN, privy to the development, said on Sunday. MTN Group is trying to reduce a $5.2 billion fine imposed by Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator by as much as 80 per cent and is considering borrowing money from banks to help settle the penalty, said Bloomberg, quoting Renaissance Capital. “MTN is pushing to reduce the fine by 60 per cent to 80 per cent,” Adesoji Solanke, RenCap’s head of research in Nigeria, said in a note to clients on Wednesday, citing a bank he didn’t identify.
A second lender said that “MTN is considering borrowing from banks, as it recently checked what the banks’ lending capacity to it is,” the analyst said. “We don’t comment on banking matters and banking regulators in Nigeria are best placed to provide context on these matters,” MTN spokesman, Chris Maroleng, said by phone. “I don’t have that information,” Tony Ojobo, a spokesman for NCC, said in a text message.
Meanwhile, two lawyers, Oluyinka Oyeniji and Deolu Ogunbanjo, have instituted a legal suit against the regulator as first respondent and MTN Nigeria as second respondent over the SIM registration issue. The lawyers, both MTN subscribers and incorporated trustees of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), are challenging the NCC at the Federal High Court in Lagos, praying the court to stop NCC from further imposition of any fine on the telecoms firm.
They also want the court to compel NCC to account for all the monies it collected from telecoms operators in the past as fines, and to pay such monies to subscribers as compensation for poor service quality they had suffered in the past. According to the court documents, both lawyers, who are applicants one and two respectively in the court case, are calling for an order of perpetual injunction, restraining the first respondent (NCC) from further imposing or exerting any fine in respect of registration of telephone subscribers on the second respondent (MTN).
They called for an order mandating NCC to commission, establish and conduct monthly updates on the central database and to conduct rigorous campaign for applicants and other telephone subscribers to update their particulars with the respondents.
They equally called for an order mandating the respondents to publish newspaper apologies to the applicants and other telephone subscribers for the lack of establishment, maintenance and conducting updates on the central database. In a sworn affidavit, the lawyers mandated NCC to account for all the fines it had imposed on telecoms operators and pay applicants as well as other telephone subscribers as compensation and to continue to pay fines exerted and imposed upon conviction as compensation to applicants and other telephone subscribers.
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