MTN Group will lobby for further reductions to a fine imposed by Nigeria, a source familiar with the matter said, after authorities in its biggest market cut the penalty by more than a third on Thursday to $3.4 billion.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) handed Africa’s biggest mobile phone company a $5.2 billion penalty in October after MTN failed to cut off users with unregistered SIM cards from its network.
Nigerian authorities reduced the fine after five weeks of talks involving government and MTN officials, and gave MTN until the end of the year to pay it, said MTN, which is based in South Africa.
MTN Group will lobby for further reductions to a fine imposed by Nigeria, a source familiar with the matter said, after authorities in its biggest market cut the penalty by more than a third on Thursday to $3.4 billion from the $5.2 billion earlier imposed.
Nigeria has been pushing telecoms firms to verify the identity of subscribers amid worries unregistered SIM cards were being used for criminal activity in a country facing the insurgency of Islamic militant group Boko Haram.
Nigerian authorities reduced the fine after five weeks of talks involving government and MTN officials, and gave MTN until the end of the year to pay it, said MTN, which is based in South Africa.
Read more at Reuters
