MTN's $5.2 billion Fine: Buhari Will Have The Last Word - Minister

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, while speaking to reporters yesterday, said that President Buhari will decide the fate of the telecommunications giant, MTN as regards the five billion dollars fine against it by the Nigeria Communications Commission last month. The NCC had fined MTN $5.2 billion for failing to deactivate about 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards from its network – a trend the commission says poses a grave security risk ,given that it allows Boko Haram and kidnappers to operate without detection.

In a report by Technology Times at the Alliance 4 Affordable Internet Nigeria Coalition Conference in Lagos, Shittu went on to say that “The issue is now before Mr. President. He will take the necessary decision at the appropriate time. I think Nigerians will expect that Mr. President would do the best to ensure that the public interest is guaranteed,”

He also noted that the government and MTN are in agreement over the fact that the rules had been violated by the company.

The minister debunked rumours that the government was in negotiations with the MTN Group over considering slashing the fine, saying there was no conflicting position on where the government stood on the issue.

“Recall that there were violations, which were established against MTN. The violations were to the tune of five million (unregistered SIM cards). That is a whole lot.” he said.

“There are many countries where subscribers are not up to half of five million. In the case of Nigeria, we had more than five million violations. The good thing is that MTN did not contest the fact that they had violated the regulations and guidelines. They never contested it. They admitted they were at fault.

“They apologised for their role in the saga and they made a commitment that what happened would never happen again. And of course, they made a plea for the review of the payment terms.”

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