Barrister Adebayo Shittu, the new Minister of Communications told Technology Times yesterday in Lagos that final decision on the N1.4 trillion fine imposed on MTN Nigeria will be taken by President Muhammadu Buhari at the appropriate time “in public interest.”
There is concern that the handling of the fine could heighten the investment risk profile of Nigeria but the Minister, who spoke with Technology Times yesterday, on the sidelines of the Alliance 4 Affordable InternetNigeria Coalition conference underway in Lagos, reiterated government’s determination to ensure that final decision taken on the fines will be in the public interest.
“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”, the Minister told Technology Times.
MTN Nigeria came under regulatory hammer when 5.2 million unregistered lines were allegedly found on its network by the enforcement team of the telecoms regulatory agency, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Responding to questions about conflicting signals on Government’s stance on the fine, which South Africa’s MTN Group says it has been negotiating with the Nigeria, the Minister cleared the air on this.
“I don’t think there is any conflicting position on where government stands on the MTN issue. Recall that there were violations which were established against MTN. The violations were to the tune of five million. That’s a whole lot. There are many countries where subscribers in the entire country are not up to half of the five million.”
According to him, “in the case of Nigeria, we had more than five million violations.”
However, both parties, government and MTN are on the same page that rules have been broken in this instance, says Shittu.
“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 will never happen again. And of course, they made a plea for review of the payment terms”, he said.
According to the Minister, “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.”
