The Nigerian Communications Commission said it erred when it announced the reduction of the fine imposed on MTN Nigeria to $3.4 billion.
The regulators said instead of the 35 per cent reduction it announced from the initial fine of $5.2 billion, the slash should have been by 25 per cent.
With a 25 per cent reduction, the fine to be paid by MTN Nigeria will now be $3.9 billion.
The position of the Commission was made known by its spokesman, Tony Ojobo, who told Reuters on Friday: “The information that was conveyed to them initially said 35 (percent reduction) but it was 25.
“It was a typo.”
The fine was imposed on MTN Nigeria for its failure to deactivate 5.2 million unregistered lines.
In a bid to check insurgency, NCC had directed telecommunications service providers to deactivate all unregistered lines.
While other operators – Etisalat, Airtel and Glo – complied substantially, MTN left 5.2 million lines unregistered active.
So while other service providers got fines that were quite low, MTN was fined $5.2 billion at $1,000 per sim for the infraction.
We committed error reducing MTN’s fine to $3.4b – NCC
