MTN proposes to pay $1.5bn to settle fine in the wake of President Buhari’s claim that the network giant fueled Boko Haram insurgency

MTN has proposed to pay 300 billion naira ($1.5bn) to settle a record $3.9bn fine in Nigeria for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered subscribers, according to a document handed to reporters in the Nigerian Senate. This is coming in the wake of the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari’s claim that MTN fuelled the Islamist-led insurgency (Boko Haram) in Nigeria by failing to disconnect unregistered sim cards. Last year, Nigeria fined the South African-owned firm $3.4bn (£2.7bn) for missing a deadline to disconnect cards (You can read the story here). Nigeria believes Boko Haram militants use unregistered sim cards to co-ordinate attacks.
"You know how the unregistered [sim cards] are being used by terrorists and between 2009 and today, at least 10,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram," President Buhari said at a joint press conference with Mr Zuma, South Africa’s president.
Other mobile phone operators complied with a mid-2015 deadline to register all sim cards, but "unfortunately, MTN was very very slow and contributed to the casualties", Mr Buhari added, in his first comments on the issue.
Africa’s biggest mobile-phone company made the offer in order to settle a dispute that has been running since the fine was first imposed by Nigerian regulators in October. The country’s Senate Committee on Communications met to discuss the matter on Thursday and concluded that the negotiations with MTN must continue with the involvement of Minister of Communications Adebayo Shittu. MTN shares have declined more than 23% since the fine was made public on October 26, valuing the company at R272bn ($17.6 billion). MTN’s management, the Nigerian Communications Commission and Shittu must report back to the Senate in two weeks with the outcome of discussions, according to the committee.
Nigeria initially imposed a $5.2bn fine on MTN in October, but brought it down to $3.4bn.