South African mobile phone giant, MTN, agreed on Friday to pay a 330 billion naira (US$1.6 billion) fine to the Nigerian government for failing to disconnect customers unregistered in the West African country.
The company will pay the fine over three years.
The markets welcomed the news with the company’s shares rising by more than 21 percent on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange within hours of the news.
A massive fine of US$ 3.9 billion fine was imposed last year after MTN failed to meet a December 31 deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered subscribers to enable the Nigerian authorities to improve security.
The incident sent shock waves through the company with CEO Sifiso Dabengwa forced to step down as the company’s share price plummeted by one-third.
In addition, MTN was replaced by Vodacom as Africa’s largest mobile phone operator for the first time.
MTN which has more than 200 million subscribers across Africa and the Middle East had hired former US Attorney General Eric Holder to help it negotiate the settlement.
The agreement ends eight months of bitter negotiations that saw the original fine slashed by two-thirds.
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