MTN has finally bowed to pressure as it has accepted to pay the N1.04 trillion fine slammed on it last week by the telecoms regulatory authority, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The telecoms operator which controls 43 per cent of the country’s telecommunications market was fined for failure to fully deactivate subscribers with unregistered and incomplete Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) cards details within the stipulated time.
After series of meetings held between MTN management team from South Africa and Nigeria with the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, MTN may have agreed to pay the fine to sustain the interest of its telecoms business.
Industry sources disclosed that the federal government is already yielding to the plea, to allow MTN negotiate on how to stagger the payment.
It would be recalled that NCC had said that MTN would not escape the fine, owing to the enormity of its implication to national security.
