Nigeria settles 4-month dispute with MTN for $52.6m

Africa’s largest telephony carrier, MTN Nigeria, has settled its four-month long dispute with the Nigerian authority at a cost of $52.6 million, the telecommunications company said in a statement following months of negotiations from the two parties.

It will be recalled that the CBN in August 2018 had directed MTN Communications Limited to reverse repatriations valued at $8.1 billion done on its behalf by four commercial banks between 2007 and 2015 on the basis of Certificates of Capital Importation (CCIs) irregularly issued to MTN.

Clearing MTN of all charges, the Nigerian central bank says the South African company will still have to pay up to $52.6 million in notional reversal of a 2008 private placement having found that MTN’s private placement remittances of about $1 billion in that year were irregular.

“The CBN identified that the proceeds from the preference shares in MTNN’s private placement remittances of 2008 were irregular having been based on CCIs that were issued without the final approval of CBN,” the bank said in a statement, on Monday.

Accordingly, the “CBN and MTNN have mutually agreed that the aforementioned transaction be reversed notionally to bring it into full compliance with foreign exchange laws and regulations. The parties have resolved that execution of the terms of the agreement will lead to amicable disposal of the pending legal suit between the parties and final resolution of the matter,” the CBN added.

It is unclear whether the South African company, following this development, will go ahead with its listing on the  Nigerian Stock Exchange.