MTN has already paid millions in Nigerian fines, with more expected

APART from facing a $5.2bn fine in Nigeria, mobile network MTN has this year already paid millions of rand in other penalties, according to regulators.

 

MTN announced in October that it has been fined $5.2bn by the Nigerian Communications Commission for failing to disconnect up to 5-million unregistered SIM cards in that country.
The mobile network is in talks with the regulator about the mega fine, which has been described as the world’s largest by Denmark-based Strand Consult. MTN is Nigeria's biggest mobile network with more than 60-million subscribers.

MTN subscriber has fallen to $62.5m

SHARES in MTN dropped more than 12%, the worst fall in more than 10 years — wiping off R44bn of the company’s market value — after the Nigerian regulator fined it $5.2bn for alleged breach of SIM cards registration rules.
The shares closed at R167, giving the company a market capitalisation of R308bn, down from R352bn before news of the fine filtered through.
According to reports, MTN failed to disconnect customers with unregistered SIM cards.
The group said the fine by the Abuja-based Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) related to "the timing" of the disconnection. The NCC requires mobile network operators to register all customers in a bid to curb crime.
SA has a similar law.

Last week MTN said its total subscriber numbers in Nigeria had fallen to 62.5-million because of the 5.1-million customers that were disconnected during the registration process. Of those, 3.4-million had since been reconnected.