MTN’s Total Investment in Nigeria Hits N2tr

• MTN’s Total Investment in Nigeria Hits N2tr

Africa’s largest telecommunication company, MTN Group, has said its total investment in Nigeria through MTN Nigeria currently stood at N2 trillion.

The telecom giant disclosed this during its recent issues with Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) regarding taxes.

In 2015, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) fined MTN Nigeria N1.04 trillion for failing to disconnect 5.2 million unregistered subscribers. However, the fine was reduced to N330 billion after certain agreements were reached with the commission.

The fine has now been paid but the company disagreed with FIRS position on tax technicality surrounding the N330 fine.

MTN Nigeria further stated that the company has paid more than N1.7 trillion in taxes, levies and other regulatory fees since its incorporation in 2011.

The telecom company went public in May with the listing of 20 billion shares at N90 a share on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and immediately rose by 50 per cent to bolster NSE’s market value by N2 trillion to over N13 trillion. MTN Nigeria is the second-largest listed company on the bourse.

The company currently operate in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East and connected more than 200 million subscribers.

In July, the company received approval for Super Agent licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria through its subsidiary, Yello Digital Financial Services Limited (YDFS), to provide financial services through its vast network.

Speaking on the licence, Ferdi Moolman, CEO, MTN, said: “We are very pleased that YDFS has been granted a Super-Agent Licence, which enables us to extend access to financial services to a much broader group of Nigerians. This forms part of our commitment to contribute towards the achievement of Nigeria’s financial inclusion goals.

“Through the network established by YDFS MTN is in a position to broaden the availability of financial services for the under-served across the country. This marks a very important first step in leveraging our infrastructure to scale our Fintech initiatives. We have also applied for a Payment Service Bank Licence, which will enable us in time to offer a broader and deeper range of financial services to those communities and we remain hopeful we will receive approval shortly.”