MTN earnings take 51% dive over NCC fine

Telecommunications giant MTN says that 2015 was a particularly bad one for the company as its earnings fell by 51 percent, owing to a fine of $3.9 billion slapped on it by Nigerian regulatory authorities.

The South African owned company revealed that it was weighed down by $600 million it put aside to cover the huge fine, and that its earnings fell by 14 percent.

The company said it had made provision of 9.2 million rand ($594 million) toward addressing the fine.

Chief Executive of the company, Phuthuma Nhleko who made this known on Thursday, also stated that the company is working as quick as it can to ensure an amicable resolution of the fine issue, foe which it has so far paid $250 million to the Nigerian government.

Nhleko said 2015 was “an exceptionally difficult year for the company — I will probably say the most difficult year it has ever experienced in its 21-year history”.

Read also: MTN Nigeria withdraws court case, pays NCC N50b

The Nigerian arm of the company was fined in October 2015 for failure to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards.

In trying to negotiate a settlement, the company said it had agreed to withdraw its suit challenging the fine in a Lagos High Court, to enable the two parties try to reach an agreement.

“We are working as urgently as we can to get an amicable solution of this matter,” Nhleko said.

MTN’s share price on the Johannesburg stock exchange rose seven percent after the announcement of the company results compared to the close on Wednesday.

MTN’s largest market on the African continent is Nigeria, where it has 61.3 million subscribers out of a total of 232.5 million.

The company also stated that it had to disconnect 10 million subscribers within the year— 6.7 million of them in Nigeria and 3.7 million in Uganda.

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