{"id":117956,"date":"2016-03-24T15:55:13","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T13:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=117956"},"modified":"2016-03-24T16:50:46","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T14:50:46","slug":"nigeria-lawmakers-say-mtns-fine-should-be-r241-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/117956\/nigeria-lawmakers-say-mtns-fine-should-be-r241-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria lawmakers say MTN\u2019s fine should be R241 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Nigerian House of Representatives has said that the reduction of MTN\u2019s 1.04-trillion naira fine (R81 billion) was unconstitutional, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thisdaylive.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/24\/house-reducing-mtn-fine-requires-amendment-of-ncc-act\/\" target=\"_blank\">This Day Live in Nigeria reported<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>One lawmaker also argued that MTN\u00a0should have been fined triple the original amount \u2013 which would total\u00a0R241 billion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMTN ought to have been fined under both Section 19 and Section 20 respectively with a cumulative penalty of \u20a63.12 trillion, and not \u20a61.04 trillion, which is a gross violation of the combined reading of the NCC Act,\u201d said Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma.<\/p>\n<p>MTN Nigeria was handed a fine for failing to disconnect 5.2-million unregistered SIMs on its network by a Nigerian Communications Commission-given (NCC) deadline.<\/p>\n<p>MTN was originally fined \u20a6200,000 (R15,572) per unregistered SIM active on its network.<\/p>\n<p>The fine was later reduced by 25% to \u20a6780 billion (R61 billion), but the mobile operator elected to take the matter to Nigeria\u2019s courts.<\/p>\n<p>It later dropped the case and paid a \u201cgood faith\u201d sum of \u20a650 million (<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/156457-mtn-pays-nigerian-authorities-r3-8-billion.html\">R3.8 billion at the time<\/a><\/strong>)\u00a0in an effort to achieve an amicable settlement.<\/p>\n<p>Nigerian lawmakers said this payment into the recovery account was in violation of the law, and called on MTN Nigeria\u2019s chief executive officer, Ferdinand Moolman, to appear before the telecommunications committee.<\/p>\n<p>MTN said it would release a statement on the matter.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Updated: MTN Group has noted reports out of Nigeria about the fine imposed on MTN Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).<\/p>\n<p>MTN has previously advised shareholders not to make decisions based on press reports and MTN again urges its shareholders to refrain from doing so.<\/p>\n<p>MTN continues to engage with Nigerian authorities in an attempt to ensure an amicable resolution to this matter in the interests of MTN Nigeria, its stakeholders and the Nigerian authorities. To this end, we shall await clarity and further guidance on the fine from the Federal Government of Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Shareholders are therefore advised to continue to exercise caution when dealing in the company&#8217;s securities until a further announcement is made by MTN.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on MTN<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/116956\/nigeria-reinstates-regulatory-services-to-mtn\/\">Nigeria reinstates regulatory services to MTN<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/115980\/mtn-fuelled-terrorist-group-nigerian-president\/\">MTN fuelled terrorist group: Nigerian president<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/116326\/mtn-cautions-over-1-5-billion-nigerian-settlement-reports\/\">MTN cautions over $1.5 billion Nigerian settlement reports<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/114982\/mtn-profits-tumble-on-r9-3-billion-nigeria-fine-provision\/\">MTN profit tumbles on R9.3 billion fine provision<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nigerian House of Representatives has said that the reduction of MTN\u2019s 1.04-trillion naira fine (R81 billion) was unconstitutional, This Day Live in Nigeria reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":109697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,28],"class_list":["post-117956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-mtn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117956","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\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117982,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117956\/revisions\/117982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}