MTN must pay fine, says govt

Mobile giant MTN must pay substantial part of the
N780billion fine imposed on it for subscriber identity
module (SIM)registration guideline infractions before any
out of court settlement could honoured, the Federal
Government said yesterday.
The Minister of Communications and Technology, Mr.
Adebayo Shittu, said the telco violated extant laws for
which it accepted responsibility and wrote a letter of
apology, promising to be a responsible corporate citizen.
The infractions were committed under the Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan administration, which, according to Shittu,
looked the other way. It took the courage of the
government to apply the law, he said.
MTN begged for a revision of the sanction, “which Mr
President graciously acceded to”, but the company
turned around to say it had no money to pay.
The minister said the government replied, asking MTN to
write a letter stating why it will go down after paying the
fine and attaching a statement of its account so that the
government will realise the dangers the payment will
constitute to its financial health.
Shittu said he received a call from the telco informing
him that it was going to court.
He said since the matter is now before the court, the
government will wait for the court’s decision.
According to Shittu, nobody wants MTN dead. The
company violated the laws for which there are
consequences, he said.
MTN was sactioned about $5.1billion or N1.7trillion for
fraudulently keeping some 5.2million preregistered SIMs
on its network – a development analysts said amounted
to sabotage in view of the security challenges facing the
country.
Also yesterday, the MTN confirmed that it has been
served with court summons based on a lawsuit filed by
Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services Limited
(Etisalat Nigeria) over the acquisition of Visafone.
In a statement, its Executive Amina Oyagbola, said
Etisalat has filed a lawsuit against MTN and Visafone
and we have filed appropriate processes before the court
for necessary determination. “The acquisition of
Visafone was concluded after obtaining all necessary
statutory and regulatory approvals. I am not able to
comment further as the matter is sub judice,”she said.
Oyagbola added that the acquisition allows Visafone and
MTN to leverage resources for service enhancement
whilst also deepening the growth and roll-out of
broadband services across the country in support of the
National Broadband Plan for the benefit of Nigerians.
She also made reference to media reports credited to
regulatory authorities that the acquisition would help
sustain the continuity of CDMA services in Nigeria in
addition to being beneficial to operators and subscribers.