MTN Suffers Fresh Blow, Gets $8.5m Regulatory Fine
The Rwandan division of popular South African telecommunications giant, MTN, has landed itself a staggering $8.5 million fine from the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) over breach of regulatory directive.
RURA, in a statement on its website, said MTN Rwanda contravened its laws by hosting their IT services outside the country (in Unganda).
“MTN Rwanda provided services in contravention of enforcement notice and directives issued by the regulator against hosting its IT services outside the country,” the statement read.
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“By doing so, MTN Rwanda breached its license obligation requiring it to comply with all applicable laws, regulations and any other regulatory instruments issued by the competent authority.
“On May 4, 2017, the regulatory board of RURA conducted a hearing session in which MTN Rwanda was informed on the breach of its license obligations and given the opportunity to be heard, whereby MTN Rwanda admitted the above-mentioned breach.
“In accordance with the applicable laws, the regulatory board of RURA decided to impose on MTN Rwanda administrative fine of seven billion thirty million Rwanda Francs (7,030,000,000).”
While admitting the breach of its license obligation, MTN Group said: “MTN has been engaging with the regulator on this matter over the past four months. MTN Rwanda is currently studying the official notification and will continue to engage with the regulator on this matter.”
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THE WHISTLER recalls that MTN had suffered similar casualty after the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), in October 2015, fined its Nigerian division a whopping N1.4 trillion for failure to disconnect unregistered sim cards in the country.
