SIM Registration: MTN Pays N110bn In Fine

MTN Nigeria has paid a total of N110bn into the pocket of the government out of the imposed N330b imposed by the Nigerian Communication Commission

Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, made this known on Thursday at a workshop on Code of Corporate Governance setup by the commission in Kano.

He also disclosed that the commission was rearranging its regulatory activities to make sure that telecommunications’consumers get value for their money.

NCC had in October 2015 imposed a fine of N1.04tn on MTN for irregular registration of subscribers. However, after prolonged negotiation with both the regulatory agency and the Federal Government, the company had the fine reduced to N330bn.

Danbatta said the matter had been resolved with an agreement for settlement over a three-year period signed between the agency and MTN.

He said the payment was spread over a three-year period because the intention was not to snuff life out of MTN.

The NCC boss said, “Current evaluation report of the state of the industry suggests that whilst not understating the impact of other external and fiscal issues confronting the sector, that most challenges negatively affecting the health of operators in the sector today are attributable to poor governance issues.

“It is currently rejigging its regulatory oversights in the areas of ensuring that consumers get cost effective value for money spent on telecommunication services; and that service delivery by providers are qualitative and efficient.