Menu

The Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigeria’s telecoms regulator, has slammed a $5 billion fine on MTN for failing to disconnect subscribers with unregistered phone lines bought before January 2012.

In 2011, the NCC mandated all telecoms operators in Nigeria to register all their existing phone subscribers before a January 2012 deadline. The NCC had ordered that all unregistered phone lines after the end of the registration process should be disconnected from operators’ networks.

But MTN Nigeria, the largest telecoms operator in Nigeria, failed to comply with NCC’s directive, according to the BBC.

Nigerians often accuse the NCC of corruption and dereliction of duties for failing to sanction telecoms operators for their poor services and exploitative charges.

Last week, MTN Group, MTN Nigeria’s parent company, slashed its full-year subscriber forecast after it disconnected five million subscribers in Nigeria.

In August, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Prof. Umaru Garba Danbatta as the head of the NCC after the tenure of the former head, Eugene Juwah, expired.

Chibuike Oguh is Financial Nigeria's Analyst of the Frontier Markets