Africa's largest telecommunications company, MTN is wreathing in pain from the fine slammed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The giant network operator, saw its shares plunge for a second day on Tuesday, October 27 easing 4.2 per cent to 159.98 rand on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
This came as investors scrambled to cut their losses following the news of the N1.04 trillion ($5.2 billion) fine imposed on the company’s Nigerian subsidiary by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The decline saw MTN’s shares extend their losses to nearly 16 per cent over the last two days, clearing about 50 billion rand ($3.66 billion) from the company’s market value, reported Reuters.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) fined MTN N1.04 trillion last week for failing to deactivate 5.2 million subscribers with unregistered and incomplete SIM card details on its networks within the stipulated deadline.
The fine was based on N200,000 per unregistered subscriber. The company was given till November 16 to cough up the fine.
However, in a bid to reduce the impact of the record fine on its business, the company was said to have kicked off talks with NCC to try to reduce the fine, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed yesterday.
A source said: “MTN is talking to NCC with the view to revoking or reducing this fine. There was a bit of misunderstanding around this issue.”