The Senate is wading into the disagreement between the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and MTN Nigeria over the N780 billion fine imposed on the telecoms firm last year.
Chairman of Senate Committee on Communication, Gilbert Nnaji, who disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Abuja said that the panel had initiated a dialogue between the NCC and MTN to ensure that the matter is resolved amicably.
NCC had in October, 2015 imposed N1.04 trillion fine on MTN for failing to fully deactivate subscribers with unregistered and incomplete Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) cards details on its networks within the stipulated time. The fine was later reduced to N780 billion but MTN dragged government to court over the fine, arguing that it was outrageous.
Nnaji, who described the disagreement as embarrassing, assured that the committee would resolve the matter in a way that all the parties would be happy.
He said: “We have waded into the impasse between NCC and MTN Nigeria, we have started dialogue but it is still an in-house discussion, it will not be made known to the media until we reach a concrete agreement between NCC, MTN and the Senate Committee on Communication. The matter has become very embarrassing, but with dialogue, the matter will be resolved. We don’t want to hear that we are looking for foreign investors in the country and in the other way round, we are chasing them away, we can’t allow that to happen”.
The lawmaker called for review of the Communication Act, stressing that it was enacted since 2003 and has become obsolete due to so many developments that have taken place in the industry.
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