The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has retraced its steps on the offer to reduce MTN’s pending fine by 35%, saying it will now only be cutting it by 25% after admitting half a billion dollars worth of typo.
NCC spokesman Tony Ojobo admitted: “There was a typo. The reduction should have been 25 percent.
“We saw the mistake and had to fix it,” he was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
MTN on Friday morning confirmed that it had received a second letter from the NCC, dated December 3, stating that the fine would be reduced from the original 1.04 trillion naira ($5.2 billion) to 780 billion naira ($3.9 billion).
The company had announced on Thursday announced that the NCC had sent a letter dated December 2 saying the fine would be slashed to 674 billion naira ($3.4 billion).
The second letter supersedes the first letter but the payment date remains December 31, 2015. MTN says neither letter set out any details on how the reduction was determined.
The original $5.2 billion fine was slapped on MTN in October for failing to disconnect over five million unregistered SIM cards on its network in Africa’s biggest economy.
MTN says it is carefully considering both letters, and that executive chairman Phuthuma Nhleko will “immediately and urgently re-engage with the Nigerian authorities before responding formally”.
MTN also on Thursday announced a massive restructuring of its leadership positions in a number of territories. The job shuffle included the exit of MTN Nigeria’s CEO Michael Ikpoki and the head of regulatory and corporate affairs in Nigeria, Akinwale Goodluck, who both resigned with immediate effect.
The shuffle also saw a restructuring of MTN’s business into three regions –West and Central Africa (WECA), South and East Africa (SEA), and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – and the appointment of a number of new top execs, including new group COO Jyoti Desai.
MTN’s stock at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) fell over 4.5% and closed at R140 a share after Thursday’s announcement. When the fine was announced at the end of October the share price was sitting at around R190 per share. The stock priced has fallen almost 37% year-to-date.
MTN is the largest mobile phone operator in Nigeria, and the West African nation is also MTN’s biggest market. The Telco had 62.5 million subscribers in Nigeria as of the third quarter this year and the country accounts for about a third of the group’s revenue.
