“The fine of N1.04tn on MTN Nigeria by the NCC was done in the interest of the public, which has been at the receiving end of security challenges. Consequent upon the overwhelming evidence of non-compliance and obvious disregard for the rule of engagement by MTN, the NCC had no choice but to impose the sanctions.
“MTN, in a letter of November 2, 2015, admitted the infraction and pleaded for leniency. The commission has acknowledged this and is looking into the plea without any prejudice to the fine. The fine remains but the appeal and other engagements with MTN may affect the payment deadline.
“The fine that was imposed on MTN was the second within two months after the operators were given a seven-day ultimatum to deactivate all unregistered and improperly registered SIM cards. While others complied, MTN did not.
“On August 4, at a meeting of all the representatives of the mobile network operators with the NCC, major security challenges through preregistered, unregistered and improperly registered SIM cards topped the agenda, after which the operators were given the ultimatum to deactivate such within seven days.
“On August 14, three days after the ultimatum expired, the NCC carried out a network audit; while other operators complied with the directive to deactivate improperly registered SIM cards, MTN showed no sign of compliance at all.
“Four operators, MTN, Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat, were sanctioned in August for non-compliance with the directive to deactivate the improperly registered SIM cards. MTN got a fine of N102.2m; Globacom, N7.4m; Etisalat, N7m; and Airtel, N3.8m. Others complied, while MTN flouted the fine.
“Based on the report of the compliance audit team, an enforcement team, which visited MTN from September 2 to 4, 2015 wherein MTN admitted that the team confirmed that 5.2 million improperly registered SIM cards were still left active on their network; hence, a contravention of the regulations was established.
“Consistent with the commission’s enforcement process, MTN was by a letter dated October 5 given notice to state why it should not be sanctioned in line with the regulations for failure to deactivate improperly registered SIM cards that were found to be active at the time of the enforcement team’s visit of September 15.
“On October 19, the commission received and reviewed MTN’s response and found no convincing evidence why it should not be sanctioned for the established violations.
“Accordingly, by a letter dated October 20, 2015, the commission conveyed appropriate sanctions to MTN in accordance with Regulations 20(1) of the Telephone Subscribers’ Registration Regulation 2011, to pay the sum of N200,000 only for each of the 5.2 million improperly registered SIM cards.”
Signed:
Tony Ojobo,
Director of Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission
