NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION INSISTS THAT MTN NIGERIA MUST PAY ITS $3.9 BILLION TODAY

The heat on the Nigerian operations of the South African telecommunication congloromate, MTN Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) seems not to be cooling off as the December 31, 2015 deadline for the payment of the $3.9 billion fine against MTN Nigeria is final as a spokesman for the Ministry of Communications, Mr. Victor Oluwadamilare has confirmed.

However, contrary to the expectations of the NCC, MTN is not ready to pay the fine and has rather filed a suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos asking that the fine be disallowed. In line with this, MTN is seeking to put the payment on hold until the court rules on its application.

The NCC is not budging in its insistence and its spokesman states that "If the MTN doesn't pay the fine by tomorrow, the NCC will enforce the fine in line with relevant provisions of the NCC Act.  The fact that they have gone to court doesn't affect the fact that they have a fine hanging on their neck. These are two separate issues.”

Speaking further, the spokesman posited that the NCC would enforce the fine with due regards to the relevant positions of its establishing law. He said the NCC had a team of lawyers handling the matter and they had filed on behalf of the NCC an objection to the issues raised in the suit by MTN.

He stated that the suit by MTN did not provide it with an excuse to delay the payment of the fine and confirmed that the NCC would act within the full powers provided by its law to ensure that the fine was complied with by MTN. He did not, however, specify what steps would be employed in enforcing the payment of the fine.

The spokesman alleged that MTN was only trying to delay the payment as it had no merit in its defense, noting that they had filed a suit in court in respect of the fine but where still trying to seek a solution out of court and stressed that the NCC would do what was necessary to enforce the payment.

He assured the public that things had changed for the better and the matter would be handled legally and advised that the authorities of MTN respect this in its resolution of the matter and not expect that the matter would be treated in any other way.

It would be recalled that the NCC imposed the fine on MTN on Oct. 26 for the failure to register 5.2 million user SIM cards in line with the directives of the Commission. This was occasioned by the kidnap case of a onetime Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria, Chief Olu Falae.