MTN Nigeria engages industry regulator NCC over N1.04 trillion fine

According to the NCC the penalty represents N200, 000 ($1,000) for each of the unregistered 5.1 million SIM cards that were disconnected in August and September 2015 and gave MTN till November 16th to pay the fine. But its parent, MTN Group, in a statement from South Africa yesterday, said MTN Nigeria was currently in discussions with the NCC to resolve the matter in recognition of the circumstances that prevailed with regard to the subscribers.

MTN was penalised by the regulator last week for failing to disconnect 5.2 million subscribers who had unregistered SIMs and incomplete details on its network.

Based on regulations, there will be sanctions as stipulated by SIM Card Registration Code, Section 19 to 21, where it was stated that per SIM found defective on the network, erring operator will be made to pay N200, 000, which was set out on May 1, 2010.

NCC’s decision was taken based on security advice from the State Security Service (SSS) and the failure to comply with the directive.