MTN accuses CBN, AGF of frustrating listing process

MTN group has accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of frustrating its effort at listing on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange with the accusations that the telco illegally repatriated $81.bn between 2007 and 2015.

Recall that the CBN had alleged improper dividend repatriations by MTN Nigeria between 2007 and 2015 of $8.1 billion while the Attorney General of the Federation office also accused the telco  unpaid taxes on foreign payments and imports of approximately $2 billion.

In its quarterly report for the quarter ended on September 30, 2018, and released on Monday, the telco said its listing process in Nigeria is currently facing challenges from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“We successfully completed the listing of MTN Ghana. MTN Nigeria’s plans to list have been challenged by the recent Central Bank of Nigeria and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria matters,” MTN said in the report.

“MTN remains committed to the listing in Nigeria and work continues in this regard. In the quarter, the group engaged extensively with authorities in Nigeria to deal with the matters they raised.”

MTN Nigeria has continued to deny these allegations and claims, stating that it remained resolute that it had not committed any offences and will continue to defend this position vigorously.

Meanwhile, MTN in the report stated that MTN had an excellent quarter, increasing service revenue by 17.4% YoY, towards the upper end of our medium-term target for Nigeria of double-digit growth”.

“This was led by a 52. 5% increase in data revenue and 21.5% increase in outgoing voice revenue. Data revenue growth was supported by an increase in active data subscribers as well as more smartphones on our network, the result of various CVM and OEM-partnership initiatives.

“Digital revenue declined by 28.5% following the continued optimisation of our value-added services (VAS) business. We completed the final element of this optimisation, suspending auto-renewal of subscriptions, in mid-September which means that digital revenue will continue to be impacted by lower VAS revenue in the fourth quarter, after which we expect it to stabilise.”

MTN Nigeria reported 17.2 million active data subscribers, up 15.1 percent quarter-on-quarter, and 2.5 million mobile money customers, up 12.4 percent QoQ.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says MTN, a telecommunications company, must complete its listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange by May 2019.