TELECOMMUNICATION OPERATORS TO PAY N22 M TO NCC FOR DEFYING BAN ON PROMOS

                                                                            

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the sole regulatory organ in the telecommunication industry has fined four GSM operators for defying its ban on promotions and lotteries on their respective networks. The telecommunication operators affected are to pay N22m for disobying NCC’S new regulatory order. The affected operators are; MTN Nigeria, Etisalat Nigeria, Airtel and Globacom. Mr. Reuben Muoka, NCC Head of Media and Public Relations, in statement he issued said, “four mobile service providers, Airtel Networks, Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services (Etisalat), Globacom and MTN Communications Nigeria, are to pay a total sum N22, 000,000 being the cumulative amount in sanctions for contravening the ban on promotions and lotteries in their respective networks as placed by the commission”. MTN is to pay N2m each for five promotions, totally N10m, Etisalat will pay N6m for three promotions, Airtel is to pay N4m for two promotions while Globacom will pay N2m for one promotion. All the affected operators are to pay up their fines within seven days, beginning from the date of receipt of the sanction notice. Also, the statement further said that the affected companies are liable to pay an additional sum of N1m for each day in failure to comply with the payment of the fines within the specified period. It will be recalled that the Commission had in a letter dated November 8, 2012, banned all GSM operators from running promotions and lotteries on their networks.