Telecommunications giant, MTN, has BOOST its efforts toward the $3.9 billion fine by the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC) for failing to disconnect unregistered
sim cards. MTN disclose they've hiring a former US Attorney-General Eric Holder to
negotiate the fine imposed last year.
The NCC had fined the MTN $5.2 billion for its failure to disconnect
5.2 million unregistered subscribers on its network by the August 2015
deadline and asked it to pay up by November 16, 2015. However, the fine
was reviewed downwards by 25 per cent with a fresh payment deadline of
December 31, 2015 after appeals by the company.
But rather than pay the reviewed fine, MTN approached the Federal High
Court sitting in Lagos a few days to the payment deadline, challenging
the legality of the fine. By the time the matter came up for hearing in
January, the telecoms company through its counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun
(SAN), saught an out-of-court settlement and requested a 60-day window
to sort things out with the NCC.
According to the Financial Times of London, the MTN might have finally
settled for former US Attorney-General Holder to help it negotiate the
fine, put at 95 per cent of its annual turnover in Nigeria, because of
his experience in handling such matters.
Holder was one of President Barack Obama’s longest serving cabinet
members. He held office from 2009 to 2015 before returning to
Washington-based corporate law firm Covington and Burling after standing
down as attorney-general in April 2015.
“His experience as attorney-general in dealing with corporates with a lot of problems was interesting to MTN,” the paper quoted someone close to the negotiations, adding that the telecom company hoped his “experience and stature could inject some balance into the equation”.
No comments:
Post a Comment