By MICHELLE
FAUL
·
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — MTN Group
telecommunication's stock plunged 12.5 percent on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange Monday on the news that its most lucrative subsidiary, in Nigeria, has
been fined $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect millions of unregistered cell
phone subscribers.
The Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) confirmed the penalty based on 200,000 naira ($1,000) for each
of 5.1 million cell phone SIM cards that had not been registered and should
have been disconnected by an August deadline.
On Aug. 7, the commission issued an
ultimatum ordering all cell phone providers to de-activate unregistered cards
within seven days "or face severe sanctions." All the other cellphone
companies in Nigeria complied, the commission said.
The South African company said in a
statement Monday that it is in talks with Nigeria's regulatory body "to
resolve the matter."
The $5.2 billion fine is equivalent
to at least two average years' profit for MTN Nigeria and nearly three times
the $1.8 billion that it has invested in the West African country, according to
the company's website. Africa's leading cellphone service provider, MTN paid
$285 million for one of four GSM licenses in Nigeria in 2001.
Before the cut, MTN said it had
about 62 million customers among Nigeria's 170 million people in September, by
far the group's biggest market.
Nigeria has about 150 million
active mobile phone lines, 90 million mobile Internet users and imports 4
million cellphones each month, according to Nigeria's Federal Ministry of
Communications.
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