Nairametrics|The fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on telecommunications firm MTN Nigeria has caused the parent company to incur a loss. The group expects to have a headline loss per share of 474 cents compared to a profit 0f 1204 cents in the corresponding period of 2015.
The NCC in October 2015 imposed a ₦1.0 4trillion naira fine on MTN Nigeria for inability to disconnect sim cards with incomplete registration details. After a tortuous eight months which saw the firm taking the NCC to court, the fine was reduced to ₦330 billion naira to be paid in tranches till 2019. The firm also issued an apology to the government and people of Nigeria, and will list the Nigerian arm on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The firm which is the dominant mobile operator in the country, started operations in 2001 and has over 20 million subscribers. It is slowly losing market share to Globacom, according to recently released statistics in the NBS Q4 Telecoms Report.