Mtn fine slashed by 25% not 35% - NCC

On Friday, the Nigeria Communications commission(NCC), said it has reduced the N1.04b fine imposed on telecommunications company mtn by 25% and not 35% as initially quoted. At such, the telecommunications giants, will have to pay N780bn and not N647bn, the NCC said.

This was made known by the commission's director of public affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo.

Mr. Ojobo, admitted that there was an error in the initial letter it sent to MTN, saying that it was a quarter (25 per cent) of the fine that the Presidency agreed should be cut off due to diplomatic intervention.

NCC on mtn fine

Mr. Ojobo who spoke in an post-event interview in Lagos, said, “When the error was discovered, we had to quickly communicate MTN about the error.”

Ojobo also said MTN was not marked out for punishment, noting that the NCC had only applied the “carrot and stick’ approach.

“There was an error, which has been communicated to MTN. It was not 35 per cent but 25 per cent, which was what the Presidency approved. MTN was not single-handedly marked out for punishment.

"They faulted where others did not. It was a carrot and stick approach. The carrot was the 25 per cent slash and stick was the sanction.”

The NCC director said no one expected any of the operators to default on the regulation because in 2011 when the regulation around Subscriber Identity Module card was made, they were all aware and pledged to abide by the rules.

“So it came as a shock to us when after sanctioning all the operators earlier in July, where MTN paid N120m for SIM card infractions, they still went ahead to as far as leaving 5.1 million defective SIMs on their network. That obviously warranted more sanctions.” He said.

Mr. Ojobo, who stated that a “breach is a breach” regardless of the amount, said it signified that it was no longer business as usual in Nigeria.

He said the operating environment must be sanitised for more investments.