South African mobile phone firm MTN Group said on Monday it was still in talks with Nigerian authorities about a $5.2 billion fine imposed the west African country for failure to disconnect users with unregistered SIM cards.
“The company reiterates that engagements with the Nigerian authorities are continuing,” MTN said in statement, confirming a Reuters report earlier.
Last Friday, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the country’s telecoms regulator gave MTN Group two weeks to pay the fine.
The NCC imposed the penalty last week on MTN’s Nigeria unit, the group’s biggest market by subscribers, sending the phone operator’s stock tumbling by about 20 percent this week, though they bounced 2 percent by midday Friday. MTN also faces a probe by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on why it did not disclose the fine, before it broke in the media.
The telecoms regulator said MTN failed to disconnect subscribers with unregistered or incomplete SIM cards, after ordering all network operators to do so. NCC said only MTN had failed to comply with the directive.
An NCC source has said the regulator’s decision was based on advice from Nigeria’s state security service, which suspected unregistered SIM cards were being used for criminal activity in a country facing Islamic militant group Boko Haram’s insurgency.
NCC spokesman Tony Ojobo said MTN had until Nov. 16 pay up, but the two sides were in talks to resolve the matter.
“The outcome of the discussion may affect the date. That’s why they are having the discussion so that they can reach a solution,” Ojobo said.
MTN declined comment.
Nigeria’s presidency and internal security agency were also involved in the talks, a regulatory source said. MTN Chief Executive Sifiso Dabengwa flew to Abuja to make what three sources familiar with the matter said was an attempt have the penalty reduced.
If it stands, the fine, almost a quarter of Nigeria’s 2015 budget of $22 billion, would wipe out more than two years of MTN’s annual profits.