President Buhari to Decide MTN’s Fate – Minister

Fri, Nov 27, 2015
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Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications, says that only President Muhammadu Buhari will decide the fate of MTN Nigeria over the N1.04 trillion fine given to the telecom giant for not complying with regulation to deactivate unregistered SIM cards

| By Anayo Ezugwu | Dec 7, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |

AS the controversy over the N1.04 trillion fine imposed on MTN Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, continues, Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications, has said that only President Muhammadu Buhari would decide the fate of the telecom giant. He stated that the President would take the final decision on the matter at the appropriate time and in the public interest.

The minister said President Buhari’s decision would be on the basis that the government and MTN are on the same page that rules had been broken in this instance. Shittu stated this on the sidelines of the Alliance 4 Affordable Internet Nigeria Coalition Conference in Lagos, on Tuesday, November 24.

“The issue is now before Mr. President. He will take the necessary decision at the appropriate time. I think Nigerians will expect that Mr. President would do the best to ensure that the public interest is guaranteed,” he said.

The minister dismissed reports that the government was negotiating with the MTN Group and was considering slashing the fine, saying there was no conflicting position on where the government stood on the matter. “Recall that there were violations, which were established against MTN. The violations were to the tune of five million (unregistered SIM cards). That is a whole lot.

“There are many countries where subscribers are not up to half of five million. In the case of Nigeria, we had more than five million violations. The good thing is that MTN did not contest the fact that they had violated the regulations and guidelines. They never contested it. They admitted they were at fault. They apologised for their role in the saga and they made a commitment that what happened would never happen again. And of course, they made a plea for the review of the payment terms.”

The commission in a statement by Tony Ojobo, its director, Public Affairs, gave detailed explanation on why it sanctioned MTN. “Following the sanctions placed on MTN Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), members of the public have expressed diverse interest as to what actually transpired. The fine was a result of violation of Section 20(1) of the Registration of Telephone Subscribers Regulation of 2011.

“Section 20(1) of Registration of Telephone Subscribers Regulations 2011 states that: ‘Any licensee who activates or fails to deactivate a subscription medium in violation of any provision of these Regulations is liable to a penalty of N200,000.00 for each unregistered but activated subscription medium.

“The fine of N1.04 trillion on MTN Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) was done in the interest of the public, which has been at the receiving end of security challenges. Consequent upon the overwhelming evidence of non-compliance, and obvious disregard to the rule of engagement by MTN, the NCC had no choice but to impose the sanctions.

“MTN, in a letter of November 2, 2015 admitted the infraction and pleaded for leniency. The Commission has acknowledged this and is looking into their plea without any prejudice to the fine. The fine remains but the appeal and other engagements with MTN may affect the payment deadline.”

“The fine that was imposed on MTN was the second within two months after the operators were given a seven-day ultimatum to deactivate all unregistered and improperly registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) Cards. While others complied, MTN did not. On August 4, 2015, at a meeting of all the representatives of the Mobile Network Operators (MNO) with NCC, major security challenges through preregistered, unregistered and improperly registered SIM Cards topped the agenda after which Operators were given the ultimatum to deactivate such within seven days.

“On August 14, 2015, three days after the ultimatum expired, NCC carried out a network audit, while other operators complied with the directive to deactivate the improperly registered SIM Cards, MTN showed no sign of compliance at all. Please recall that four (4) operators; MTN, Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat, were sanctioned in August for non compliance of the directive to deactivate the improperly registered SIM Cards. MTN got a fine of N102.2million, Globacom N7.4million, Etisalat N7million and Airtel N3.8Million fine. Others complied while MTN flouted the fine.

“Based on the report of the compliance Audit Team, an Enforcement Team, which visited MTN from September 2 – 4, 2015 wherein MTN admitted that the Team confirmed that 5.2 million improperly registered SIM Cards were still left active on their network; hence, a contravention of the Regulations was established. Consistent with the Commission’s enforcement process, MTN was by a letter dated October 5, 2015, given notice to state why it should not be sanctioned in line with the Regulations for failure to deactivate improperly registered SIM Cards that were found to be active at the time of enforcement team’s visit of September 15, 2015.

“On October 19, 2015, the Commission received and reviewed MTN’s response and found no convincing evidence why it should not be sanctioned for the established violations. Accordingly, by a letter dated October 20, 2015, the Commission conveyed appropriate sanctions to MTN in accordance with Regulations 20(1) of the Telephone Subscribers Registration Regulation 2011 to pay the Sum of N200,000.00 only for each of the 5.2million improperly registered SIM Cards.”

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