MTN Nigeria fined $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered cell users
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP)_ MTN Nigeria has been fined $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered cellphone subscribers.
The stock of the South African-based company fell 14 per cent on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday’s news.
The Nigerian Communications Commission confirmed the penalty based on 200,000 naira ($1,000) for each cellphone SIM card that had not been registered by its August deadline.
MTN promised a statement later Monday. The $5.2 billion is at least two average years’ profit for MTN Nigeria, by far the MTN Group’s most lucrative subsidiary, and nearly three times the $1.8 billion that it has invested in Nigeria, according to the company’s website.
MTN says it has about 62 million customers among Nigeria’s 170 million people.
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Alwin Marshall-Squire is the Editor-in-Chief of S-Q Publications Inc., overseeing editorial strategy for GTA Weekly, GTA Today, and Vision Newspaper. He leads the publications’ mission to deliver bold, original journalism focused on the people and communities of the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, and the global Caribbean diaspora.
Also writes for GTA Weekly and GTA Today.
