The Federal Government on Tuesday
disclosed that heavy fines imposed on MTN Nigeria Communications Limited was
because the telecommunications company took stipulated regulations for granted.
The Minister of Finance, Zainab
Ahmed stated this during a session at the 24th Nigerian Economic Summit in
Abuja.
She said MTN provided what the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) earlier requested after the firm and some
affected Deposit Money Banks were asked to refund about $8.1bn.
CBN recently effected the N5.87
billion fine on four banks that breached its capital importation policy.
CBN debited the accounts of
Standard Chartered Bank with N2.4 billion, Stanbic IBTC N1.88 billion, Citibank
Nigeria N1.2 billion and Diamond Bank N250 million for allegedly issuing
irregular Certificates of Capital Importation (CCI) on behalf of some offshore
investors of MTN Nigeria Communications Limited.
MTN Nigeria was also directed by
the CBN to refund $8.134 billion to its coffers.
Reacting, the minister said, “The
MTN incident was a very damaging one for us and that was one of the reasons why
we have been out trying to engage our investors. But you see there is a
tendency for big businesses to take regulation and government for granted.
“Only after that incident
happened, all of the information that the CBN had been trying to get for months
actually came out. Now, I think they are up to a point where they have almost
solved the problem.
“And this is information that the
CBN governor had personally met with MTN, with the key banks involved and had
asked them to provide the information.”
Zainab recalled that the
information requested for by the CBN from MTN and the banks had to do with an
audit that took place over a period of two years.
She said, “It was an audit that
took place over the course of two and a half years and the auditors were not
satisfied with some of the information.
“They queried and they asked for
additional information. Unfortunately, this was negative for us but is now being
sorted out and we are bearing the cost of it. We have been engaging investors
and trying to explain what is happening.
“We are trying to make sure that
this doesn’t happen again. We are continuously discussing with the regulatory
authorities and there will be no company next after MTN. Nobody is next because
we just can’t afford this kind of incidence to happen.”
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