The face off between the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and MTN Nigeria took a new turn yesterday when the operator revealed it may leave Nigeria and move its operations elsewhere.
This decision was revealed by a top official of the network who told Business Journal that leaving Nigeria is one of the network’s two strategies to deal with the impasse.
“[One of our strategies] is to leave the Nigerian market entirely and expand into other territories in Africa and probably, the Middle East, to cushion the expected revenue gap from Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, MTN has decided to resist any attempt by the regulator to compel it to pay the fine.
He said: “I can tell you that MTN Nigeria will not pay a single penny or dime to the NCC. We have already instructed the seven Senior Advocates of Nigeria [SANs] handling our legal action against NCC to keep the matter perpetually in court, up to the Supreme Court, by all means necessary until Buhari leaves office or Danbatta, Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC completes his five-year term.”Now, even if Buhari and Danbatta secure a second term, that would be eight and 1O years respectively, but we can keep the case in court beyond 10 years.”
