http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/mtn-wants-5-2bn-fine-slashed-by-80-/224744/
05 Nov 2015


MTN Group Ltd in South Africa is making some moves to get the $5.2 billion fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reduced by as much as 80 per cent and it is considering borrowing money from banks to help settle the penalty, should its request for fine reduction sail through.

Bloomberg reported that the head of research of Renaissance Capital (RenCap) in Nigeria, Mr. Adesoji Solanke, shared a note with clients on Wednesday, where he said: “MTN is pushing to reduce the fine by 60 per cent to 80 per cent.”

According to Bloomberg, a second lender said: “MTN is considering borrowing from banks, as it recently checked what the banks’ lending capacity to it is."

It however quoted MTN's Group spokesman, Chris Maroleng, as saying: “We don’t comment on banking matters, and banking regulators in Nigeria are best placed to provide context on these matters.”

It also quoted the Director of Public Affairs of NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, as saying: “I don’t have that information.”

MTN has until November 16, 2015, to pay the penalty, which relates to the timing of the disconnection of 5.1 million subscribers and is based on a charge of N200,000 for each unregistered customer.

Should the telecom giant’s request be granted, the fine may be reduced by as much as $4.16 billion, which represents 80 per cent of the fine. That will leave a balance of $1.04 billion.
Meanwhile, the NCC has confirmed that it had received an apology letter from MTN, asking for leniency over the fine. NCC said it was not in doubt whether MTN would pay the fine, since it has to do with the law, which MTN was part of the signatories.

NCC however said that having received the apology letter, it would proceed to discuss it with the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, where a decision on the matter would be taken.

"We have received the apology letter from MTN, but it is not in our position to take decision on it, since the matter is being handled by the Presidency," a source from NCC told THISDAY.

In a related development, the South African lawmakers are planning to summon MTN Group Ltd. officials to explain why MTN Nigeria was fined $5.2 billion by Nigeria’s telecoms industry regulator for failing to disconnect customers with unregistered SIM cards.

According to Bloomberg, the Chairwoman of South African Parliament’s telecommunications committee, Nkhensani Kubayi, said on phone from Cape Town yesterday that "the fine is a worrying issue" that demands explanation from MTN Group.

The panel also intends summoning the South African industry regulator to determine whether MTN is compliant with local rules, with hearings likely to take place next year, she said, according to Bloomberg.

Nigeria is Johannesburg-based MTN’s biggest market with 62 million clients as of September this year.

MTN is being advised by some unidentified banks as the company pleads its case with the regulator, according to Solanke. A decision to borrow would be one of financial management rather than an indication of stress, he said

However, MTN shares gained as much as 4.1 per cent and traded 3.5 per cent higher at 160.89 rand yesterday in Johannesburg. The stock is down 27 per cent this year, valuing the company at 297 billion rand ($21.5 billion).

Is it a good move ?

I pity Mtn, that fine is too much abeg.. Nigerians are just somehow,

like it or not, mtn has done more good than harm to this country,

if you think im wrong, ask those using simple server

80%.....? I don't think its gonna be possible.

The fine is too much and I pray they get it slashed at least by 50%

And they are increasin call tariffs of their customers... God will punish dem..


If I were NCC , I"d eeven increase d fine if they continue begging.. Iranu

Them drink craz

why

chocolateme:
Is it a good move ?

i hav a crush on you, but u are older than i am, and probably married

viickerz:
I pity Mtn, that fine is too much abeg.. Nigerians are just somehow,

You pity MTN or pity the patriotic Nigerians that will surely pay the money back!

Cutehector:
And they are increasin call tariffs of their customers... God will punish dem..


If I were NCC , I"d eeven increase d fine if they continue begging.. Iranu

And if they increase the fine, then the tariffs goes up too... Except if MTN is outta Nigeria which ion see happening!
Much awaits Nigerians if NCC didnt slash the fine down!


Trust me, MTN users are yet to wail!!!

viickerz:


i hav a crush on you, but u are older than i am, and probably married

wow!! Way to go. Tnx my darling for that. Nice one.

viickerz:


i hav a crush on you, but u are older than i am, and probably married

This is a serious one o. Let us await her response.

donTbone:

And if they increase the fine, then the tariffs goes up too... Except if MTN is outta Nigeria which ion see happening!
Much awaits Nigerians if NCC didnt slash the fine down!


Trust me, MTN users are yet to wail!!!

u seeem as if mtn is d only network provider in nigeria.. If dey fail to comply, dey pack dr bags and leave.. We hav glo, etisalat and dat annoying airtel..

Tallesty1:
80%.....? I don't think its gonna be possible.

The fine is too much and I pray they get it slashed at least by 50%

Most of us do not seem to understand the origin of this fine.
ALL TELCOs signed an MOU with NCC years back saying 200k will be the fine for every SIM that is unregistered after the grace period.
MTN set the deadline, all complied and MTN did not.
Where exactly is the room for slashing?
Were they forced to not comply?
Were they unaware of what they signed?

5.2billion is way too much

We cant try this in SA

donTbone:

You pity MTN or pity the patriotic Nigerians that will surely pay the money back!

Both, i pity mtn more tho, buh if they should go ahead and pay that huge amount of fine, Nigerians will see pepper.!
Mtn will surely get it back from us, surely, their tariff charges will increase,

like it or not, majority of us use Mtn, even those who come to nairaland and say 'they have broken their mtn sim cards', its all a lie..

chocolateme:
wow!! Way to go. Tnx my darling for that. Nice one.

dont say 'Wow!!'

i did not propose to you na,

Are you married

Me I dey think Nigeria wants MTN to help us pay part of our budget for 2016 as we no get money again.

viickerz:

dont say 'Wow!!'

i did not propose to you na,

i wowed at your boldness weda real or not. Propose my foot dear. Looking for likes and shares?

chocolateme:
i wowed at your boldness weda real or not. Propose my foot dear. Looking for likes and shares?

noo, likes is not money,

im just kinda angry you took ftc from me..

Guess you didnt get the humor there, sorry, good morning.. Have a sugary day..

chocolateme:
wow!! Way to go. Tnx my darling for that. Nice one.

As president of the "NL online players association" i have no choice but to intervene on behalf of one of our members who recently tried to woo your cute ass on this thread!

This is not the sort of reply that the boy viickerz expected from you! Let him know if there is hope or not simple! Oya repost something else.. hanlele!!!

And the disregard for laid down rules continues. MTN don see us finish for this country. It's never done so anywhere that an organisation has a say on how much it pays as fine. Well, I blame it on the NCC; they must have been receiving bribe to look the other since long. Now MTN think that it's going to be business as usual forgetting that the dwindling oil prices means that government seeks alternative means of raising revenue. Unfortunately for them, there's way too much interest in this one to let it slide one more time! Pay up in full or fold up!

viickerz:

Both, i pity mtn more tho, buh if they should go ahead and pay that huge amount of fine, Nigerians will see pepper.!
Mtn will surely get it back from us, surely, their tariff charges will increase,

like it or not, majority of us use Mtn, even those who come to nairaland and say 'they have broken their mtn sim cards', its all a lie..

Thats just the point.. NCC is to blame more than MTN. As far as am concerned, in Nigeria today, MTN has the best coverage. Even if majority of nigerians stop to use MTN, they still make money from other source. An did you even know that, some of these othe network providers, if their system should go down today...maybe fire outbreak or natural disaster, they can never recover their customer informations, which is not suppose to be so. That should av been is arrangement b4 NCC will even issue certificate. But for MTN, we are all safe.

.

5.2billion out of 21.5billion is not much at all and besides what were the mtn thinking of Nigeria when they signed and agreed to the terms only to violate the law to which they are signatory! If Nigeria agree to reduce anything then we will be the most stupid country in the world besides being the most corrupt, as I know mtn will already be exploring our corrupt side by now!

Cutehector:
u seeem as if mtn is d only network provider in nigeria.. If dey fail to comply, dey pack dr bags and leave.. We hav glo, etisalat and dat annoying airtel..

OK, annoying airtel. good!

No network provider can be relied upon, cos they deal with air, cloud wind and other things. But i still say, if MTN leaves, its gonna take a decade to get another network provider to their level. Now left with GLO and ETISALAT, which is gonna give them the chance to start charging excessively!

As for the cheats we enjoy...hahahaha! no one does cheats better than MTN. Calls, browsing, text..just name it.

Only thing that can change MTN is if FG eventually brings back NITEL (as they say they are planning to bring them back and change their name to NTEL or somrthing) with lower tarrifs and better coverage than that of MTN, then i can say MTN should leave!

donTbone:


OK, annoying airtel. good!

No network provider can be relied upon, cos they deal with air, cloud wind and other things. But i still say, if MTN leaves, its gonna take a decade to get another network provider to their level. Now left with GLO and ETISALAT, which is gonna give them the chance to start charging excessively!

As for the cheats we enjoy...hahahaha! no one does cheats better than MTN. Calls, browsing, text..just name it.

Only thing that can change MTN is if FG eventually brings back NITEL (as they say they are planning to bring them back and change their name to NTEL or somrthing) with lower tarrifs and better coverage than that of MTN, then i can say MTN should leave!

lol u should knw dat any thing dat belongs to d federal government cannot excel.. Look at our refineries, postal systems, and d railway corporation.. Totally in shambles.. Not to talk of nitel... My broda, people at the top are busy stealing away money meant for the growth of these institutions... Even if mtn leaves, companies like etisalat will become nigeria's number one network service provider due to their cutting edge technologies. Need I remind u dat etisalat is "grander" dan mtn times 500.... Its just because it came to nigeria recently. They are one of d top network service providers in the middle east... Mtn sef no geh level whr dem dey... But sadly enuf, we place too much loyalty on "past glory" companies dan new ones...

funlord:


As president of the "NL online players association" i have no choice but to intervene on behalf of our members who recently tried to woo your cute ass on this thread!

This is not the sort of reply that the boy viickerz expected from you! Let him know if there is hope or not simple! Oya repost something else.. hanlele!!!

1st of all, who dash you the presidency??
2nd, why speak my mind without permission!!!

viickerz:

dont say 'Wow!!'
i did not propose to you na,
Are you married

Guy you 4cup for hia. Seriously. Even if hope been dey, I sire sey she go don sharperly dash the hope.

chocolateme:
i wowed at your boldness weda real or not. Propose my foot dear. Looking for likes and shares?

Babe chill na..... just pity the dude. At least, unlike me, he was bold enough to SAY IT OUT LOUD while I'm still busy looking up threads on how to best express your feelings on a crush

chocolateme:
Is it a good move ?

As if you didn't know if they pay that money, it's Nigerians that would pay every single kobo.

Cutehector:
lol u should knw dat any thing dat belongs to d federal government cannot excel.. Look at our refineries, postal systems, and d railway corporation.. Totally in shambles.. Not to talk of nitel... My broda, people at the top are busy stealing away money meant for the growth of these institutions... Even if mtn leaves, companies like etisalat will become nigeria's number one network service provider due to their cutting edge technologies. Need I remind u dat etisalat is "grander" dan mtn times 500.... Its just because it came to nigeria recently. They are one of d top network service providers in the middle east... Mtn sef no geh level whr dem dey... But sadly enuf, we place too much loyalty on "past glory" companies dan new ones...

Wouldnt wanna argue much on that, but on the African chat, MTN comes before Etisalat..thou etisalat is 15th in the world.
As per the NTEL stuff, never write it off yet....lets see whats gonna become of it when it starts!

donTbone:


Wouldnt wanna argue much on that, but on the African chat, MTN comes before Etisalat..thou etisalat is 15th in the world.
As per the NTEL stuff, never write it off yet....lets see whats gonna become of it when it starts!

I think it should be privatized...