Nigeria approves MTN licence renewal
South African mobile giant MTN said Tuesday
that its operating licence in Nigeria had been
renewed for another five years, despite being hit
with a $5.2 billion fine for failing to disconnect
unregistered users.
“The Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) has approved the
renewal, and consequent extension of
the tenure of MTN’s operating spectrum
in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz frequency
bands,” the South African company said
in a statement.
The 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz frequencies
are the commercial GSM frequencies in
Nigeria.
“With this renewal and extension, MTN’s
operating spectrum which was issued
along with the Digital Mobile License
(DML) in 2001 (with an original expiry
date of February 2016), has now been
extended to 31 August 2021,” MTN
added.
The operator has up to December 31 to
pay the renewal fees of $94.2 million, it
said.
The renewal of the licence had been seen
as in jeopardy because of the NCC fine
on MTN for missing a deadline to de-
activate all unregistered SIM cards.
All mobile operators in Nigeria were in
early August issued with a directive to
comply within seven days or face
sanctions.
The move was reportedly made for
security reasons.
MTN — Africa’s largest telecoms firm
with more than 62.8 million subscribers
in Nigeria — missed the deadline to
deactivate its 5.1 million unregistered
subscribers.
That prompted a 200,000-naira ($1,000)
fine for each unregistered SIM.
The penalty saw the company’s shares
crash on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange.
Talks are going on between NCC and
MTN officials on the fine, which the
company has until November 16 to pay.
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