MTN Hires Former US Attorney General To Help Fight NCC's $3.9 bn Fine

Telecommunication giant, MTN has hired former United States Attorney General Eric Holder to help it challenge the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) over the N3.9 billion fine it imposed on the company for failure to register its subscribers.

The corporate law expert with Covington and Burling, visited Abuja last month to plead with senior Nigerian officials on behalf of the South African telecoms group, the FT is reporting.

“His experience as attorney-general in dealing with corporates with a lot of problems was interesting to MTN,” said one person close to the negotiations. The person said the company hoped Mr Holder’s “experience and stature could inject some balance into the equation.”

Well, so far Nigerian authorities are not perturbed. by MTN’s negotiations, arguing that the figure was computed strictly according to laws set out in 2011.

An official reportedly said:

“Why would Eric Holder change anything? It looks a little desperate, like they couldn’t find anyone with proximity who is able to influence the president,” one senior Nigerian government official said. “At first there were lots of people who said this was a bad signal for foreign investors but when they looked into it they realised that MTN had really messed up,”