I celebrated my birthday last Friday, on the same day MTN’s stock price on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange jumped by 20%. This happened in the wake of the news that the firm’s nine-month Nigerian nightmare might finally be coming to an end.
MTN has reportedly struck a deal with the Nigerian government, and is set to pay the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) $1.7 billion over three years— significantly less than the $5.2 billion they were initially fined for flouting SIM card registration regulations months ago.
While MTN’s shareholders are no doubt breathing a sigh of relief, the company is not out of the woods yet, as according to the NCC, one of the conditions linked to the monetary settlement is the requirement that MTN list its Nigerian subsidiary on the Nigerian Stock Exchange “as soon as is commercially and legally possible”.
The jury’s still out on whether this is the last we’ll hear of this story, given Nigeria’s National Assembly coming out strongly against the NCC’s reduction of MTN’s penalty. One thing is certain though, this case sets one heck of a precedent, and that can only bode well for corporate Africa.
Also in this week’s African Tech Round-up, we feature part of a conversation I had with Charles Murray— who is a director of the messaging and internet calling app, ttrumpet.
Listen in to hear Charles talking about why he reckons ttrumpet isn’t just another mobile app, and sharing some of the pressures and perks of growing a startup that is a subsidiary of relatively successful tech group (Fastcomm) backed by one of the continent’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, Patrice Motsepe.
First published in African Tech Round-up.
Andile's Take 