Minister of Communication, Bayo Shittu, says
only President Buhari will decide on the N1.04
trillion fine Nigeria Communication Commission
slammed on the MTN for defaulting in the Sim
registration exercise. Shittu said this at the
Alliance 4 Affordable Internet Nigeria Coalition
conference in Lagos yesterday November 24th
“I don’t think there is any conflicting position
on where government stands on the MTN
issue. Recall that there were violations
which were established against MTN. The
violations were to the tune of five million
subscribers.
There are many countries where subscribers,
in the entire country, are not up to half of
the five million. In the case of Nigeria, we
had more than five million violations.
However, both the government and MTN are
on the same page that rules have been
broken in this instance. The issue is now
before Mr President. He will take the
necessary decision at the appropriate time.
And the President would do what is best for
the public interest. The good thing is that
MTN did not contest the fact that they had
violated the regulations and guidelines. They
never contested it. They admitted they were
at fault. They apologized for their role in the
saga and they made a commitment that
what happened will never happen again. And
of course, they made a plea for review of
the payment terms,” he said.
