The
lingering face-off between the Senate and the executive arm of the government
may soon degenerate again over alleged moves to reduce the fine imposed on MTN
from $8.1bn to $800m.
Some
senators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our correspondent on
Tuesday, that the executive, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria,
had allegedly perfected arrangements to reduce the fine through “the back
door.”
The senators
accused the executive of taking a unilateral action without recourse to the
upper chamber, which had earlier investigated the alleged scam and exonerated
the telecommunications giant.
The Senate
had, on November 8, 2017, adopted the report of its Committee on Banking,
Insurance and other Financial Institutions, which probed the alleged illegal
repatriation of $13.9bn by MTN.
The red
chamber, in its resolution, unanimously exonerated the telecoms firm and
accused the CBN of laxity, which, the lawmakers claimed, led to sharp practices
by the commercial banks that aided such huge repatriation.
The CBN had
alleged in August 2016 that MTN and four banks – Standard Chartered Plc,
Citigroup Inc, Stanbic IBTC Plc, and Diamond Bank illegally repatriated the
money from Nigeria and that the company should return $8.1bn.
The apex
bank also imposed a fine of $16m on the four banks.
Reacting to
the decision by the executive to slash the fine on Tuesday, the Chairman of the
Senate panel that investigated the alleged scam, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim,
said, “The CBN failed to implement the
Senate resolution before conducting another investigation into the alleged
infraction by MTN.”
Ibrahim said
his committee would request the CBN report on the matter in order to take a
definite action on the issue.
He said that
the only way Nigerians would know what transpired between the CBN and MTN on
the $8.1bn fine was through a detailed report.
He said,
“The last time we heard about this issue was when we had a little retreat two
weeks ago in Lagos, and the CBN did a presentation on their biannual activities
to the Senate committee.
“We took
them (CBN officials) up on the issue, and they told us that they carried out
another investigation on it but we asked them to tell us how they did the
investigation.
“We’re
taking them up based on the fact that we have investigated everything and we
saw what happened.
“Our
resolution was passed to them, and they did not even implement it before they
embarked on another investigation.
“They said
their investigation was based on a petition from a law firm and that their
position was that the penalty was correct.
“So, it will
be ridiculous for the CBN to say they’re bringing the penalty down from $8.1bn
to about $800m. What they told us that day was that they were going to give us
the report from when they started the investigation to date and their
discussion with MTN.
“So, if
that’s the case, they have to answer to Nigerians through us (committee) to the
Senate what informed the penalty of $8.1bn?
“We want to
know the information they now have that informed the reduction to $800m. I
don’t know what percentage of reduction you can call that. Is it not up to
1,000?”
Ibrahim said
the clerk of his committee would soon be directed to write the CBN and probably
give ultimatum to it to submit the report.
However, the
MTN Group said it was making “great progress” with Nigerian authorities in
talks about $10.1bn in claims, encouraging Africa’s largest wireless network
provider that it could settle the long-running dispute out of court, Bloomberg
reported.
The South
African company is in ongoing discussions with Nigeria’s central bank and other
institutions and is “narrowing down what the key issues are,” the Chief
Executive Officer, Rob Shuter, said in an interview in Cape Town on Tuesday.
According to
him, MTN’s strategy is twofold: seek legal action while simultaneously looking
for an amicable resolution.
“We would
like a resolution out of court and with normal engagements as that would be
faster than a court process,” he said.
Earlier on
Tuesday, Shuter indicated that he had no intention of walking away from
Nigeria.
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