Africa’s largest mobile phone company, MTN, has hired a former United States Attorney-General, Eric Holder, to challenge the $3.9 billion fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failing to disconnect unregistered users.
MTN was handed a $5.2 billion penalty in October 2015, prompting weeks of lobbying that led to a 25 percent reduction to $3.9 billion, a fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, for having 5 million unregistered SIMs in its network, which eventually led to another round of SIM cards registration in the country.
Also, a judge in Lagos last month gave MTN until March 18 to reach a settlement on the fine, which equates to more than twice MTN’s annual average capital spending over the past five years.
Report has it that MTN was still not prepared to pay the fine and launched a court challenge in December, saying the NCC had no legal grounds to order the penalty.
