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MTN agrees to pay 1.7 billion dollars fine to Nigeria

Xinhua, June 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

South African telecommunications giant MTN said on Friday it has agreed to pay Nigeria a fine of 330 billion naira (1.7 billion U.S. dollars) as the final settlement of a row.

The fine, to be paid in cash over three years, was the full and final settlement agreed with the government of Nigeria, MTN said in a statement.

This is about a third of the original amount demanded by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which originally fined MTN 5.2 billion dollars in October 2015.

The NCC later lowered the penalty to 3.9 billion dollars, although MTN offered 1.5 billion dollars in March.

"This is the best outcome for the company," MTN Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko said.

The fine was imposed on MTN after Nigerian authorities had found MTN failing to deactivate 5.2 million unregistered cell phone SIM cards in Nigeria, where mobile phones can be used in extremist attacks and kidnappings.

The authorities say the registration could make it easier for security agencies to track down mobile phone users with criminal records.

MTN, Africa's biggest mobile operator, has about 231 million subscribers in 22 countries across Africa, with Nigerian being its biggest market in the continent. Enditem