Apparently, MTN Nigeria is not out of the woods yet following an increase of $500 million to its reduced $3.4 billion NCC fine after the regulator said it wrote an incorrect figure in an earlier letter to the telecoms operator.
Recall that NEWS360 INFO, Thurday, reported that the regulator in a letter it sent to MTN Group reduced the initial $5.1bn fine to $3.4bn following series of meetings between the two parties.
“There was a typo,” Nigerian Communication Commission spokesman Tony Ojobo told Bloomberg by phone on Friday, referring to a letter dated Dec. 2 that reduced the original $5.2 billion penalty to $3.4 billion. “The reduction should have been 25 percent. We saw the mistake and had to fix it.”
MTN spokesman Chris Maroleng declined to comment. The shares traded 4.7 percent lower at 133.40 rand as of 10:39 a.m. in Johannesburg, the lowest since Nov. 17.
MTN received a second letter on Thursday which superseded the first letter and increased the fine to $3.9 billion, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement on Friday. The payment date is Dec. 31.
