Rob Shuter, Chief Executive of African telecommunications giant- MTN Group, on Tuesday expressed confidence that the ongoing dispute with Nigeria’s Federal Government and its Central Bank (CBN) would be resolved amicably.
Reuters quoted Shuter as telling reporters at the ITU Telecom World conference in Durban that: “Nigeria, it’s our largest market. We’ve been operating there since 2001.
“We do have some challenges these past few weeks, but we believe we will be able to make our case and I’m sure we will move past that as soon as we can,” he added.
The CBN accuses MTN of using in improperly issued certificates to convert shareholder loans in its Nigerian unit to preference shares in 2007, following which $8.13bn in dividends paid by MTN Nigeria to its parent between 2007 and 2015 should be returned, the central bank said.
Also, Abubakar Malami, Nigeria’s Attorney General says MTN Nigeria should have paid approximately $2bn in taxes relating to imports of foreign equipment and payments to foreign suppliers.
Meanwhile, MTN informed investors also on Monday that it has sought protection of Nigeria’s Federal High Court.
But confirming the planned diplomatic resolution of the dispute, South Africa’s Telecommunications Minister Siyabonga Cwele said on the sidelines of the same conference that the government was ready to help put in a word for MTN.
This, he said, will however be “if they need our assistance, then we will engage our counterpart in Nigeria.
“But at this stage they have not asked us to intervene… We will be waiting for their call,” Cwele told Reuters, saying already MTN has told the South African government that talks continue between the company and the Nigerian government.
MTN’s latest troubles come about two years after it agreed to pay more than $1bn to settle a dispute over SIM cards in Nigeria.