MTN Group Ltd may receive a naira-denominated refund if Africa\u2019s biggest wireless carrier returns the $8.1 billion that Nigeria says was illegally taken out of the country.<\/p>\n
The South African phone company must bring back the cash after it and three banks \u201cflagrantly violated foreign-exchange violations,\u201d Nigeria Central Bank Deputy Governor Joseph Nnanna said by text message Sunday, reiterating a Wednesday order.<\/p>\n
The lenders have been hit with a combined $16 million fine for their role in the transactions, which happened over eight years through 2015.<\/p>\n
News of a potential like-for-like naira refund answers one of the outstanding questions arising from last week\u2019s bombshell, when the reserve bank handed down the order to the country\u2019s biggest mobile-phone company.<\/p>\n
How and when MTN should pay the money and what happens if the company doesn\u2019t comply remain unanswered. MTN refutes all allegations.<\/p>\n
MTN\u2019s share price ended the week 17 percent lower in the wake of the turmoil, leaving the stock close to nine-month lows.<\/p>\n
The news came almost three years after Nigeria hit the carrier with a $5.2 billion fine – later reduced to about $1 billion – in an entirely separate dispute over SIM-card registration. That incident also weighed heavily on the share price.<\/p>\n
MTN had agreed to sell shares in the Nigeria business in Lagos as part of the 2016 SIM-card settlement, but the latest censure has thrown those plans in jeopardy.<\/p>\n
The crackdown on the company comes as Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari seeks re-election for a new four-year term in a February vote.<\/p>\n
His administration has gone after companies for irregularities as well as tax-defaulters, part of a wider pledge to fight corruption in Africa\u2019s most populous nation.<\/p>\n