Fine should not force MTN to leave

NIGERIA does not want MTN to quit the country because of a $5.2-billion (R74.67-billion) fine imposed last month‚ its new communications minister said‚ suggesting the African mobile phone giant may have found a sympathetic ear in its bid to reduce the penalty.

The deadline for paying falls on Monday‚ with little clarity as to whether the SA-listed company can‚ or will‚ pay the fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission for failing to cut off 5.2-million unregistered SIM cards.

“A judgment has been given‚ as it were‚ and the period for enforcement has not yet passed‚” Adebayo Shittu‚ who was sworn in as communications minister this week‚ said.

The fine – if fully enforced – amounts to more than the past two years of profit for MTN in its biggest market‚ but Shittu said it should not jeopardise the company’s future in Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy. The fine is based on $1 000 (R14 359) per outstanding unregistered SIM card‚ as stipulated by Nigerian telecommunications laws‚ although most analysts expect some sort of a reduction.

Nigeria accounts for 37% of revenues for MTN‚ which operates in more than 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Since the announcement of the fine‚ its shares have lost nearly 25% of their value.

The fine has the potential to escalate into a trade or diplomatic spat with SA‚ the continent’s other pre-eminent economic heavyweight‚ although Pretoria has so far played down the risk of wider fallout.

Nigeria has pushed telecommunications operators to verify their subscribers’ identities due to concerns that unregistered SIM cards are being used for criminal activity or even by Boko Haram militants waging an Islamist insurgency in the northeast. — Reuters