- One of Nigeria's telecommunications company has paid part of its N330 billion fine slammed on it by the federal government
- MTN paid N80 billion out of the whole sum, the minister of communication Adebayo Shittu said
- The minister also said the money forms first year fine slammed on MTN
Shittu said the money forms part of the three year fine slammed on the communication company
The Nigerian government has confirmed a part payment of fine slammed on one of Nigeria’s telecommunications company MTN.
The federal government said MTN paid N80 billion out of the N330 billion fine slammed on the company over violation of extant rules guiding telecommunications operations in Nigeria.
Speaking on the fine, the minister of communications Adebayo Shittu said MTN paid part of the money for the first year of three years it was fined.
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The federal government had earlier slammed a $5.2bn (N1.04tn) for failing to deactivate more than five million unregistered SIM cards in Nigeria.
However, the fine was later reduced to N330bn by the Nigerian government.
Shittu said: “For the first year, they paid N80bn, after paying the initial N50bn, and they will have to pay for three years until they will complete the N330bn.
“MTN does not have a choice, when the law was made, it said for every unregistered SIM card in use, the fine is N200, 000, the law never anticipated that one company will be in violation to the tune of millions of lines.
“It was inconceivable, so when the thing was added 200,000 times 5.2 million lines, it came to a trillion plus.
“When it happened, the MTN did four things; one they accepted that they were in default, two, they apologised for that and three they committed themselves never to allow such a thing to happen and number four, they asked for remission.
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“Government had to look at a number of factors because if they have to pay this amount; they will pack up.
“We also knew that we invited the international community to come and invest and anything that will be done which will shake the confidence of international investors in Nigerian economy, we must avoid it.
“Consequently, we must not throw away the baby with the bath water, if they had packed up and left, let us assume all their staff are not more than 5, 000, it means all of those 5,000 will lose their jobs.
“Also those who made investment, who bought shares will lose their shares and the Nigeria banking sector would go into crisis.”
