The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has slammed a N1.04 trillion ($5.2 billion) fine on MTN Nigeria for failing to deactivate defective SIM cards from  its network despite several entreaties from the regulatory body

According to NCC,  the failure of MTN Nigeria, which controls 43%  of the country’s telecommunications market to fully deactivate subscribers with unregistered and incomplete Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) cards details within the stipulated time, brought the fine on the telecommunications.


Though, as at press time, no official statement has come from the NCC, however, a source at the NCC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that it was not only MTN that was found culpable, “but MTN remains the biggest culprit. The telecommunications firm was found having a database allegedly been use by kidnappers, insurgents; miscreants, armed robbers and other criminals to commit crimes in the country. NCC’s decision was taken based on security advice from the State Security Service (SSS).”

Besides, the NCC official recalled that at the August 4 meeting held at NCC office, where all the operators were invited and which had NCC top officials in attendance; members of the SSS and officials from the office of the National Security Adviser, “Can you imagine that MTN sent low rank officers to attend such a meeting. That singular act further undermined the importance of such a meeting.

“That meeting was at the instance of the office of the National Security Adviser and Director of State Service. This has become worrisome to the government in an attempt to curtail the activities of the insurgents.

“Also, when NCC Enforcement and Monitoring team went to MTN’s office for more checks, their officials decline to open their switches for inspection.”

According to the source, all these acts infuriated the NCC team, which in their report indicted the telecommunications firm of not willing to cooperate in the deactivation of improperly and pre-registered SIM cards within the stipulated time, “so there was no option but to slam them with the fine.”

NCC had also stressed  the importance of ensuring that only SIM cards with valid SIM registration details are active on telecommunications networks, but MTN failed to comply with the directive to deactivate improperly registered subscribers.

Information also had it that in September 2015, following repeated warnings and compliance enforcement MTN only made a partial attempt to bar unregistered subscribers in selected areas over a few days in in the month, while other operators had fully complied and reconciled their deactivations with the invalid registrations shared by the NCC up to four weeks earlier.

Another industry source, who preferred anonymity, said as it stands today, MTN’s persistent violations have forced the NCC to impose the unprecedented sanction of suspending all regulatory services to MTN, following its accumulation of over 28 separate and proven infractions.

Meanwhile, reacting to the fine, MTN Nigeria’s Corporate Service Executive, Akinwale Goodluck, said MTN is engaging NCC on the registration sanctions.

“Leading ICT company in Nigeria, MTN confirmed that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has imposed a N1.4 trillion fine ($5.2bn) on MTN Nigeria. This fine relates to the timing of the disconnection of the 5.1 million MTNN subscribers that were disconnected in August & September 2015 and is based on a N200, 000 fine for each improperly registered subscriber. MTN Nigeria is currently engaging with the NCC to resolve the matter.”

The Group also issued a statement from South Africa; MTN Nigeria is currently in discussions with the NCC to resolve the matter in recognition of the circumstances that prevailed with regard to the subscribers.

The statement reads: “The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) imposes fine on MTN Nigeria: Shareholders are advised that the NCC has imposed a fine equivalent to $5.2 billion on MTN Nigeria. This fine relates to the timing of the disconnection of 5.1 million MTN Nigeria subscribers who were disconnected in August and September 2015 and is based on a fine of N200, 000 for each unregistered subscriber.

“MTN Nigeria is currently in discussions with the NCC to resolve the matter in recognition of the circumstances that prevailed with regard to these subscribers. We will continue to update shareholders in this regard.”

The NCC had earlier on September 1, asked to pay telecom operators  N120.4m in fines for failing to fully comply with the directive of the commission to deactivate pre-registered and defective SIM cards.

While MTN, which has over 64 million subscribers on its network, was asked to pay N102.2 million; Globacom was slammed with N7.4 million; Etisalat, N7 million; and Airtel, N3.8 million.