The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has fined Africa’s telecom giant, MTN $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect subscribers with unregistered and incomplete SIM cards.
MTN Group Ltd. shares fell the most in almost seven years after the Nigerian telecommunications regulator fined Africa’s biggest wireless company. The stock declined as much as 14 percent, the most since December 2008, and traded 12 percent lower at 167.23 rand as of 3:55 p.m. in Johannesburg. That values the company at 310 billion rand ($23 billion).
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) imposed the fine on MTN Nigeria and said it related to the timing of the disconnection of 5.1 million subscribers in August and September.
“MTN Nigeria is currently in discussions with the NCC to resolve the matter in recognition of the circumstances that prevailed with regard to these subscribers,” the company said.
The NCC said all other telecom firms operating in Nigeria complied with the directive except MTN, Tony Ojobo NCC’s director of public affairs said.
The regulator said MTN, whose biggest market is Nigeria, had not denied the infraction and that its enforcement team deactivated the unregistered lines to ensure compliance. “We had a directive that was given to all the networks to deactivate all unregistered SIM card on their networks and they had enough time to do that,” Ojobo said. “We came out with all guidelines and the fine was supposed to be 200,000 naira per SIM card.”
MTN reported a slowdown in quarterly subscriber growth last week citing stiff competition and tougher regulation in Nigeria. The $5.2 billion is a record of any fine imposed in Nigeria
