MTN boss resigns over $5.2bn NCC’s fine

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NIGERIA: THE Chief Executive of MTN Group Limited, Mr. Sifiso Dabengwa, has resigned.

Though the company has not issue any official disclosure of the reason for the decision, but sources said it was in connection with the recent fine imposed on the company by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The commission had fined MTN (Nigeria) $5.2 billion following the company’s failure to comply with its directive to deactivate unregistered cellphone lines, apparently with many in the hands of kidnappers and members of the Boko Haram sect.

The Nigerian branch of the MTN accounted for 40 percent of the $2.24 billion profit rise of 20 percent the conglomerate announced last March it recorded in 2014.

The commission imposed the huge fine on the telecommunications firm after it missed the deadline it gave MTN, and other similar network providers in the country, to deactivate 5.2 million SIM cards that were unregistered.

The company was fine $1,000 for each of the SIM card said to have fallen into the offending category.

It would be recalled that not long ago, NCC had wielded the big stick on four Global Systems for Mobile (GSM) Telecommunications operators – MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat.

The NCC fined them N120.4 million over their contravention to obey the order to deactivate pre-registered and defective Subscribers Identification Module (SIM).

While MTN Nigeria was asked to pay N102.2 million, Globacom was fined N7.4 million, Etisalat, N7 million and Airtel N3.8 million.

The commission, in a letters dated August 26 and 28, 2015, indicted the four mobile-telecommunications networks, saying that investigations during its monitoring exercise indicated that the firms still had pre-registered and defective SIMs on their various networks.

The letters were signed by the Head, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, Efosa Idehen and Head, Legal and Regulatory Services, Yetunde Akinloye.

They were signed on behalf of NCC Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta.

The commission, in one of the letters specifically addressed to MTN, claimed that calls were placed to 402 subscribers on its customers’ list among the numbers submitted for deactivation.

In the letter addressed to MTN, the regulatory authority claimed that in continuation of its monitoring exercise it placed voice calls to 402 MTN subscribers from among the list of numbers submitted to the telecommunications for deactivation.

“The numbers called are those whose registration were incomplete or invalid as regards facila capture and the responses from those affected MTN subscribers were that MTN has neither through text messages nor any other means invited them to come forward to validate and update their registration,” the commission said in the letter entitled “Re: Monitoring of Status Compliance with Stakeholders Resolution of August 4, 2015 on Deactivation of Incomplete and Improperly Registered SIM Cards-Notice of Sanction.”

Before the fine, the commission had given a seven-day ultimatum to the GSM operators and other network providers on deactivation of all pre-registered GSM cards.

It warned that failure to comply with this directive would attract sanction, the NCC said in Abuja at the security meeting with National Security Adviser (NSA), Department of State Service (DSS), the network operators and the commission.

Among those at the meeting included Group Captain Ibikunle Daramola (NSA), Mr Godwin Ometu (DSS), NCC Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Engr. Ubale Maska, immediate past executive vice chairman of the commission, Dr Eugene Juwah and officials from MTN, Globacom, Etisalat, Visafone and Airtel, among others.

The NCC Director of Public Affairs, Mr Tony Ojobo, reeled out the resolution arrived at the meeting in a statement issued thereafter.

“The meeting resolved that henceforth, all registrations must conform to the data dictionary, technical specifications on finger prints and facial images and the business rule agreed by all stakeholders; all registration records must be validated before sending to the commission; thus eliminating all invalid records that does not conform (with) new registrations and indicate same in the monthly reports sent to commission,”Ojobo said.

He added: “It was also resolved that operators will be held liable for cases of pre-registered SIMs.”