South Africa's MTN denied it paid a bribe to Nigerian
officials to reduce its fine to 330 billion naira ($1.05 billion) as part of
settling a dispute over disconnecting unregistered SIM cards in the West
African country.
MTN said in a statement on Friday there had been
allegations that a top official in the Nigerian presidency (Chief of Staff to
President Muhammadu Buhari ) took a payment towards reducing the fine.
The telecom group was initially fined $5.2 billion
last October for failing to deactivate more than five million unregistered SIM
cards.
In June, MTN agreed to pay a reduced fine of 330
billion in a settlement with the Nigerian government and said the fine will be
paid by MTN Nigeria over three years.
Source: (REUTERS)
Tags
Business