New MTN Boss Insinuates At Cut To $5.2 billion Nigerian Penalty

The new MTN boss yesterday suggested that he would seek a reduction to the $5.2 billion penalty imposed on MTN by the Nigerian telecoms regulators for failure to cut off unregistered lines after a particular date.
Nkhelo who is a former MTN CEO told Radio 702, “I can’t say whether we’ll pay the whole fine. I don’t want to negotiate with Nigerian regulators on a public forum”. He said his main priority is to deal with the crises.
Nigeria is MTN’s largest market and generates a third of her revenues. Shares in MTN have gone down by 3.9%, also losing 1.6% on Johannesburg Stock Exhange’s Top 40 index.
Analysts also believe that Nkhelo will get the fine reduced. Political risk consultants Eurasia said MTN will likely get the penalty reduced. In a published note on Monday it said, “we expect an eventual compromise to sharply scale back the size of the penalty (to less than half the original amount), especially as MTN takes concrete steps to address the regulators concerns”.
MTN has until November 16 to pay the fine.