MTN Uganda Questions $118m Fee for 10-year Licence

• MTN Uganda Questions $118m Fee for 10-year Licence

The Uganda Communications Commission has increased the ten-year licence fee for MTN Uganda to $118m from the $100m proposed by the cabinet in November 2018, the Monitor reported.

The UCC spokesperson, Ibrahim Bbosa, told the daily that the licence renewal was based on MTN’s projected annual gross revenue.

This was arrived at by the Ministry of Finance but MTN has since written to the UCC seeking clarification on how the $118m was reached.

Bbosa said the government closed at a position of charging two per cent of projected annual gross revenue for the licence.

The two per cent calculation, according to government, will require MTN to pay $118m for a 10-year licence or $150m for one of 15 years.

Bbosa said MTN had already written to the regulator seeking to understand how the finance ministry was able to predict how much the company would be making in the next ten years.

Currently, MTN is waiting for a response from cabinet, after which it will have to choose between the ten and fifteen-year licence, the UCC said.

The MTN corporate affairs manager, Justina Ntabgoba, declined to comment on the matter, saying it was an ongoing negotiation.

MTN’s 20-year licence was obtained in 1998 and expired in October 2018, and has since been partially renewed.

MTN has been in talks with the government since 2017 but has only received temporary renewals. It was temporarily renewed in January and extended until May.