LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Africa’s biggest telecommunications company is locked in a nasty battle with one of the most powerful governments on the continent, with billions of dollars at stake.
MTN Nigeria, MTN Group’s subsidiary here, was fined $5.2 billion for failing to meet an August deadline to deactivate 5.2 million unregistered cellphone SIM cards – considered a security threat with Nigeria confronted by an Islamic uprising and rampant kidnappings and armed robberies.
The fine amounts to nearly two years’ profits for MTN Nigeria, by far the company’s most profitable subsidiary. It also equals nearly a quarter the national budget of Nigeria, which has been hammered by the global plunge in oil prices. Nigeria’s is Africa’s biggest oil producer and President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected this year, says he inherited depleted coffers as he struggles to create jobs and fulfill other campaign promises.
In a telephone interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Tony Ojobo, the spokesman for the Nigerian Communications Commission, said the regulator won’t buckle to pressure from MTN shareholders to reduce the fine levied against the South African-based telecommunications giant.
Underscoring the perceived reliance on mobile phones by Islamic extremists in Nigeria’s war, the military regularly cuts cellphone service in areas under attack by Boko Haram. Unregistered mobile phones can also be used by criminals to hide their tracks. Ojobo said unregistered MTN SIM cards were used to make calls demanding ransom in the September kidnapping of former Finance Minister Olu Falae.