South Africa owned Telecommunications firm, MTN, has proposed to pay the federal government N300 billion for the fine imposed on it by the Nigeria Communication Commission, NCC.
A document from the office of the Solicitor General of the Federation read at the hearing of the Senate Committee on Communications attended by the Minister of Communication, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta and representatives of the MTN, said the telecom has proposed to pay the amount.
The fine was initially N1.4 trillion before it was reduced to N780bn. But the telecom has proposed to pay N300bn.
MTN was fined in October last year by NCC for failure to disconnect unregistered SIM cards as directed by the authorities, thereby contravening the provisions of the regulation on SIM card registration.
Reading the document, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, said the telecom proposed to pay N250bn in addition to the N50bn it paid last month.
At the hearing of the committee, there was controversy over the N50bn already paid being part of the fine. Chairman of the committee, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, queried the payment, saying it violated the law establishing the NCC.
But the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, said the money was paid following a directive by the minister of justice.
“The FG asset recovery account has been credited with N50bn, the narration clearly shows that it was deposited by the MTN and the money is intact. The money was paid into the recovery account because of the pending litigation on the issue,” he said.
