The new Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria Ferdi Moolman has said the N1.04 trillion ($5.2 billion) fine imposed on the mobile operator by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is 95 per cent of its annual turnover, noting that paying it in its entirety could fold the network.
NCC in October 2015 fined MTN N1.04 tr for its failure to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered or poorly registered subscriber identification module (SIM) lines on its network despite repeated warnings for it to do so. NCC gave the telecoms giant a 25 per cent discount but media reports said the regulator took back the discount when MTN failed to meet the December 31 payment deadline.
Speaking with the media at the weekend, Moolman acknowledged the tough operating environment MTN has found itself which makes the fine very harsh on the operator, adding that MTN has learnt its lessons from and would work to restore its relationship with the regulator, stakeholders and its customers.
“I see a situation where the relationship with NCC is restored in the interest of the Nigerian public, where we start providing services again to the Nigerian public together with the NCC,” he said.
He said the amount was about 95 per cent of the company’s total revenue for a year. “The size of the fine blows my mind when you start looking at the figure. It is huge, it is massive. How do you fix it, what do you do? Operating in the telecom world has become challenging,” he said.
Moolman explained that the falling oil prices and fluctuating foreign exchange were having a negative impact on the ability of the company to import equipment from abroad. “It is really disturbing and it has become more difficult to import equipment from abroad. These two issues of falling oil prices and fluctuating foreign exchange regime are serious issues, but we have confidence in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) efforts to resolve the matter.”
Moolman said going forward, MTN is positioning itself as a full digital company playing deep in the broadband, broadcasting and digital content space in the information and communications technology sector. “We would like to take this company from a telecom company to a people’s company so that people can communicate with each other, entertain themselves, something that people are proud to be part of.
On SIM registration, Moolman said that a solid database of MTN’s subscribers is key to the next phase of the telecommunications revolution, especially in the area of broadband provisioning; consequently, the company has begun a complete re-registration of all its more than 63 million subscribers in Nigeria.
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