MTN has bowed to pressure and agreed to pay the N1.04 trillion fine slammed on it last week by the telecoms regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) but asked for phased payment.
The telecoms operator was fined for violating its directive to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered or poorly registered SIM cards by its customers in August and September.
After a series of meetings between MTN management team from South Africa and Nigeria with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the telecoms giant with the largest subscriber base in Nigeria agreed to pay the fine in phases.
Industry sources who confirmed the decision, disclosed that the Federal government is already yielding to the plea for phased payment as part of the agreement reached at the weekend in Abuja.
“There have been series of meetings at the Presidency between Vice President Osinbajo and MTN team both from South Africa and the Nigerian arm. MTN wanted a waiver considering their level of investments in the country, but government did not buy the idea of waiver. Instead, there will be concession, but certainly not a waiver. At the conclusion of the meeting, the MTN people negotiated on how to stagger the payment. The Presidency is even angry because MTN was a signatory to the regulation, but they failed to comply with the rules,” the source said.
It would be recalled that NCC had said that MTN would not escape the fine, owing to the enormity of its violation’s implication to national security.
Although NCC had hinted that the issue is being handled by the Federal government, the telecoms authority also noted that MTN would risk withdrawal of its licence if it fails to comply with the fine.
Even with the widespread calls for the intervention of the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) in the N1.04 trillion fine, Chief Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), last week called on the NSA not to intervene in the matter, adding that NCC regulation must stay its course.
NCC said it has consistently engaged Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to strictly adhere to the regulations and its business rules in the registration of their subscribers.
Following several engagements, the commission had confirmed various cases of violations of the regulations and sanctioned the violators appropriately.
-Vanguard
