{"id":102247,"date":"2015-10-26T13:37:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T11:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=102247"},"modified":"2015-10-26T14:41:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T12:41:05","slug":"mtn-hit-with-r71-billion-fine-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/102247\/mtn-hit-with-r71-billion-fine-report\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN hit with R71 billion fine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Update: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>MTN has confirmed the fine, and issued the following statement:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Shareholders are advised that the NCC has imposed a fine equivalent to US$5.2 billion on MTN Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>This fine relates to the timing of the disconnection of 5.1 million MTN Nigeria subscribers who were disconnected in August and September 2015 and is based on a fine of N200, 000 for each unregistered subscriber.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Original story:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Nigerian Communications Commission has hit MTN Nigeria with a 1.04 trillion naira fine (R71 billion), according to a report by <a href=\"http:\/\/technologytimes.ng\/unprecedented-telecoms-watchdog-imposes-n1-4-trillion-fine-mtn-nigeria\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nigerian Technology Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The publication confirmed the figure from the new chief of the watchdog, Professor Uman Danbatta, who said the matter is a punitive sanction against the MTN Group over allegations that it breached SIM registration rules in the country.<\/p>\n<p>According to sources cited by the NTT, MTN Nigeria allegedly disobeyed directives by the NCC to deactivate unregistered mobile phones, which subsequently opened the country to &#8220;grave security threats&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>More sources within MTN Nigeria reportedly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leadership.ng\/news\/469815\/ncc-fines-mtn-nigeria-n1-04trn-for-sim-deactivation-default\" target=\"_blank\">confirmed<\/a> that communications of the fine had reached the group in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The fine is reportedly the largest ever in the history of Nigerian telecoms.<\/p>\n<p>MTN Group announced in a trading statement last week that its Nigerian operation lost 5.1 million subscriber lines in August due to the deactivation of incomplete SIM registrations ordered by NCC.<\/p>\n<p>shortly after 14:00, MTN&#8217;s share price declined 4.28% to trade at R182.67 on the JSE.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on MTN<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to MTN grows its customer base in South Africa\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/101926\/mtn-grows-its-customer-base-in-south-africa\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">MTN grows its customer base in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to MTN threatens to pull out of South Africa\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/101430\/mtn-threatens-to-pull-out-of-south-africa\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">MTN threatens to pull out of South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to MTN eyes sharing cell tower infrastructure\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/101296\/mtn-eyes-sharing-cell-tower-infrastructure\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">MTN eyes sharing cell tower infrastructure<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nigerian Communications Commission has hit MTN Nigeria with a 1.04 trillion naira fine (R71 billion), according to a report by Nigerian Technology Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":70619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,28,1123],"class_list":["post-102247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-nigeria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102247"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102271,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102247\/revisions\/102271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}