Nigeria: Regulators, Due Process, Mega-Fines and the National Treasury

16 November 2015
opinion

As Nigerians follow the path of improved regulation and serious sanctions against offending companies, we must ensure that our regulators have the most competent and honest staff possible.

Today, MTN Nigeria is expected to pay a whooping 1.01 trillion Naira, about $5.2 billion fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission. The fine is huge but then the infringement by MTN is massive - they refused to close down the lines of 5.1 million subscribers who had refused to go through the process of biometric registration so that the State can investigate them should they be involved with crimes such as terrorism and kidnapping. By its action, MTN was in active collusion with the criminal underworld of the country from where they had been making stupendous amounts of profit and refusing to even pay appropriate taxes. I understand that they are seeking 60-80 percent reduction to the fine. Should that happen, it would make nonsense of the principle of serious consequences for anti-Nigerian activities by companies that are profiteering from Nigeria and doing real harm to us. I believe that a rebate of 10 percent is enough to show that we are responsive to the concerns of our South African friends that have been doing us so much harm.

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