$5.2bn NCC fine: MTN set to fire its Nigerian CEO, other top management officials

MTN is reviewing its senior management positions in Nigeria after the company was fined $5.2bn by the Nigerian Communications Commission for failing to disconnect customers with unregistered SIM cards, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Senior executives at the company who are in Nigeria to meet with the regulator to discuss the fine, will decide on whether to make changes to senior management, which is headed by local Chief Executive Officer Michael Ikpoki, according to a source in the know.

Information pieced together indicate that the head office in South Africa plans to sack top management officers in Nigeria.

According to the source, behind closed doors, angry South African top management executives from the head office who arrived the country days ago have been confronting Ikpoki and other local officers.

Another source described it as an effort to assert authority and move beyond an embarrassing episode.

The South Africa office is not too happy that MTN Nigeria missed the deadline to disconnect 5.1 million subscribers.

It was gathered that the NCC initially asked MTN to disconnect between 10 and 18.6 million users but MTN told the regulator it had 5.2 million unregistered users on its network.

The kidnap of elder statesman and a former Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Chief Olu Falae, last month also compounded matters for MTN when it could not provide information on its mobile numbers that were used by the kidnappers to negotiate a ransom with Falae’s family for his release.

If it stands, the penalty will wipe out more than two years of MTN’s annual profits in Nigeria. Nigeria is MTN’s biggest market, with about 62 million subscribers signed to the network by the end of September.

Meanwhile, MTN shares have plunged about 19% this week in Johannesburg, the biggest three-day drop since 2008, valuing the company at about R288bn.

The stock declined 2.6% to R155.85 at the close of business on Wednesday, the lowest since October 2012.

By persecondnews.com