The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has postponed the nightmarish day when the South African telecoms giant, the MTN would be made to face and maybe pay the sum of $5.2 billion (over N1 Trillion) standing against it as fine for failing to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards.
The MTN was earlier given up to today, November 16, to pay the fine, but the communication regulatory agency extended the date to allow for negotiations, according to the mobile phone operator.
The new Executive Charmian of the company, Phuthuma Nhleko said the NCC had agreed that the fine will not be payable until the end of negotiations he entered into.
“Shareholders are advised that the executive chairman of the company, Mr. Phuthuma Nhleko, has personally met with the Nigerian authorities to continue the ongoing discussions with them regarding the fine,” a statement from the company said.
“These discussions include matters of non-compliance and the remedial measures that may have to be adopted to address this.
“Shareholders are advised that the Nigerian authorities have, without prejudice, agreed that the imposed fine will not be payable until the negotiations have been concluded.”
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is MTN group’s largest market where it had over 62.8 million subscribers by the second quarter of this year.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has launched an investigation into MTN for “possible insider trading” before the company announced it had been hit by the fine.
The probe could result in South Africa’s bourse operator slapping MTN with another hefty penalty or result in criminal charges. [myad]