{"id":126487,"date":"2016-06-10T13:07:53","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T11:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=126487"},"modified":"2016-06-10T13:19:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T11:19:52","slug":"mtn-pays-r25-billion-to-settle-nigerian-fine-share-price-surges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/126487\/mtn-pays-r25-billion-to-settle-nigerian-fine-share-price-surges\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN pays R25 billion to settle Nigerian fine &#8211; share price surges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MTN says it has resolved a dispute with the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and has agreed to pay a total cash amount of 330 billion naira over three years\u00a0 &#8211; the equivalent of R25 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Shares in the company advanced 13.5% in midday trade on the JSE, to R<span class=\"_Rnb fmob_pr fac-l finance_answer_card__price\" data-symbol=\"MTN\" data-tmid=\"\/m\/0ckjjn0\" data-value=\"14037\">140.37.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) hit MTN with a\u00a0$5.2 billion fine last year, for failing to disconnect more than five million unregistered SIMs on its network.<\/p>\n<p>This\u00a0fine was later reduced by 25%, but MTN\u00a0elected 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 billion (<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>The \u20a650 billion (R3.8 billion) paid in good faith and without prejudice by MTN Nigeria on 24 February 2016 forms part of the monetary component of the settlement, MTN said in\u00a0 a statement on Friday &#8211; leaving a balance of \u20a6280 billion outstanding which will be discharged as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u20a630 billion (R2.3 billion)on 8 July 2016<\/li>\n<li>\u20a630 billion (R2.3 billion)\u00a0on 31 March 2017<\/li>\n<li>\u20a655 billion (R4.1\u00a0billion)\u00a0on 31 March 2018<\/li>\n<li>\u20a655 billion (R4.1 billion)on 31 December 2018<\/li>\n<li>\u20a655 billion (R4.1 billion)\u00a0on 31 March 2019<\/li>\n<li>\u20a655 billion (R4.1 billion)on 31 May 2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>MTN Nigeria has agreed to take immediate steps to ensure the listing of its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as soon as commercially and legally possible after the date of execution of the settlement agreement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;MTN Nigeria shall always ensure full compliance with its license terms and conditions as issued by Nigerian Communication Commission,&#8221; the company said.<\/p>\n<p>MTN Group executive chairman Phuthuma Nhleko said: &#8220;he expresses his thanks and gratitude to the FGN for the spirit in which the matter was resolved and believes this is the best outcome for the Company, its stakeholders, the FGN and the Nigerian people and that the relationship between MTN, the FGN and the NCC has been restored and strengthened.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on MTN<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/124719\/mtn-to-name-new-ceo-in-june\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>MTN to name new CEO in June<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/121957\/mtns-share-price-rallies-amid-ongoing-talks-in-nigeria\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>MTN\u2019s share price rallies amid ongoing talks in Nigeria<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/121565\/former-mtn-ceo-scores-r23-million-golden-handshake\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Former MTN CEO scores R23 million golden handshake<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/121137\/mtn-cuts-off-millions-of-subscribers-in-nigeria\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>MTN cuts off millions of subscribers in Nigeria<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MTN says it has resolved a dispute with the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and has agreed to pay a total cash amount of Naira 330 billion over three years  &#8211; the equivalent of R25 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":109697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,28],"class_list":["post-126487","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\/126487","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=126487"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126507,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126487\/revisions\/126507"}],"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=126487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}