N1.4trn: MTN agrees to pay Nigerian fine, pleads to stagger payment

With the recent N1.4 trillion slammed on MTN Nigeria by the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the controversies that have trailled it, the telco has agreed to pay the fine but to stagger the payment .
Daily Sun learnt that the last minute agreement, followed series of meeting held between MTN management team from South Africa and Nigeria with
the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
MTN agreed to pay the fine in the interest of its business, but has pleaded with the Federal Government for a staggered payment model.
A source from the presidency, confirmed the new arrangement, the federal government is already yielding to the plea, which he said, was part of the agreement reached at the series of meeting held on Thursday and Friday in Nigeria.
The source, further explained that there have been series of meetings at the state House between the Vice President Osinbajo and MTN team both from South Africa and the Nigerian arm. The telecommunications firm wanted a waiver considering their level of investments in the country, but government did not buy the idea of waiver.
” Instead, I think 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 are failing to comply with rules.”
The regulatordisclosed that MTN would not escape the fine, owing to the enormity of its implication to national security.
Although NCC had said the matter was being handled by the federal government, the umpire also said the dominant operator would risk withdrawal of its licence and would not be given any regulatory attention, should it fail to comply with the fine.
In spite of widespread calls for the intervention of the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), on 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. He insisted that the law of the NCC and that of Nigeria must take its course.
NCC had last week, fined MTN the sum of N1.04 trillion for violating its directive on SIM deactivation. Giving reasons for the fine, NCC said Commission had consistently engaged Mobile Network Operators, (MNOs) to strictly adhere to the regulations and its business rules in the registration of their subscribers.
NCC said in spite of these several engagements, the Commission confirmed various cases of violations of the regulations and sanctioned appropriately.
Consistent with the Commission’s mandate and its regulatory process, the Commission monitored MNOs compliance with the above regulations and in 2012, observed irregularities in the registration process.
Given the recent security concerns in the country, government held several meetings with MNOs on the need to ensure only properly registered SIM cards are active on their networks.
It will be recalled that on 4th August, 2015, another high level meeting was held with the MNOs. Consequent upon which earlier directives were reinforced with a deadline to deactivate all invalid/improperly registered SIM Cards within seven days ending August 11, 2015.
Three days after the deadline, the Commission carried out a Compliance Audit of all the MNOs from 14th to 18th August, 2015.
The outcome of the Audit showed that while all other MNOs complied substantially with the directive to deactivate improperly registered SIM Cards, MTN showed no sign of compliance at all.