MTN Group will hold even more discussions with Nigerian authorities in an effort to further reduce a fine imposed on the South African firm for failure to cut off unregistered users, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reduced the penalty to $3.4 billion from $5.2 billion and given MTN until the end of the year to pay it.
“The fine is still big enough to cripple MTN’s ability to invest in its network and that’s what further talks with the NCC are about,” the source said.
Chris Maroleng, MTN’s spokesman declined to comment.
It would be recalled that MTN Nigeria was fined N1.04 trillion by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failure to disconnect unregistered lines on its network.
Consequent upon the overwhelming evidence of non-compliance, and obvious disregard to the rule of engagement by MTN, the NCC had no choice but to impose the sanctions.
MTN, in a letter of November 2, 2015 admitted the infraction and pleaded for leniency. The Commission has acknowledged this and is looking into their plea without any prejudice to the fine. The fine remains but the appeal and other engagements with MTN may affect the payment deadline.
The fine that was imposed on MTN was the second within two months after the operators were given a seven-day ultimatum to deactivate all unregistered and improperly registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards. While others complied, MTN did not.