The Federal Government has explained why it decided to reduce the MTN’s N1.04 trillion fine to N330 billion. It said the decision was taken to give impetus to foreign investors in the country. The Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, at the venue of an Achiever’s Award ceremony in honour of Senator Lekan Balogun, the Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, weekend, said there was need to give foreign investors impetus to continue investing in the country.
He, however, said that “as far as we are concerned, the MTN issue is a closed matter. The Federal Executive Council has remitted a substantial part of the penalty to them. 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.
“Again, we must not forget that before MTN and other telecoms operators came on board, Nigeria had only less than 500,000 telephone lines. Today, because of their involvement, 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. Though they (MTN) have violated the law and we have put in the necessary penalty, we must put a halt to the limitless crisis so that we don’t discourage foreign investors,” he added.
Speaking in a similar vein, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, said: “The MTN matter has been concluded at the executive level and a position taken by the Federal Executive Council and communicated to the company.
“In fact, the NCC has already written to MTN conveying the position of Nigeria on the fine to MTN and that is the true position as far as that matter is concerned.’’