TheCable

Adebayo Shittu, minister of communications, on Sunday said the $5.2billion fine slammed on telecommunication giant, MTN, was reduced to encourage foreign investments in the country.

Shittu said this in Ibadan at an award ceremony in honour of Lekan Balogun, the Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland.

He said the federal executive council (FEC) decided to reduce the penalty against the telecommunications giant after realising the negative impact the burden could have on the nation, its people and the economy.

“As far as we are concerned, the MTN issue is a closed matter,” he said.

“Nigeria as a country must move on. We must not do anything to drive away foreign investors. Foreign investments are potent means of bringing about development and wealth creation.”

Shittu said the people must not forget that there were less than 500,000 telephone lines before the telecom operators came on board.

“Nigeria now has more than 152 million lines and MTN is the dominant operator in the field. It controls almost 50 per cent of the lines,” he said.

“Though, MTN violated the law and we had to penalise it. We must put a halt to the limitless crisis so that we don’t discourage foreign investors.

“That is what the federal executive council has done to ensure we move ahead. We know for instance, that MTN operates in 22 countries.

“What it realises in Nigeria alone is more than what it realises in the other 21 countries put together.”

Shittu advised the telecoms operators against taking Nigeria and their customers for granted, warning that all infractions would be appropriately sanctioned.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had slammed a $5. 2 billion fine on MTN for failing to disconnect 5.2 million unregistered subscribers.

The fine was later reduced to N330 billion and the company agreed to pay within a period of three years.