Telco is facing an $8.5 million fine for flouting regulatory directives

folarin okunola

May 17, 2017 4:50 PM

Rwandan Utilities Regulatory Authority is hitting MTN Rwanda with this fine because it failed to comply with the regulators directives.

A big fine in Nigeria weighed on MTN's bottom line in 2016

I don’t know how long the MTN Group can continue to deal with huge fines on its operations in countries where it operates.

The South Africa-based company has still not fully recovered from the $3.1 billion fine slammed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 2015, now its Rwandan arm is facing an $8.5 million fine from that country’s regulator.

According to a report by South African website MyBroadband, the Rwandan Utilities Regulatory Authority is hitting MTN Rwanda with this fine because it failed to comply with the regulators directive prohibiting the inclusion of MTN Rwanda in the MTN South and East Africa (SEA) IT hub based in Uganda.

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“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,” MTN says in a statement, according to the report.

This comes off the bat of several struggles for MTN across the continent as well as a terrible 2016, financially speaking. The company is the largest mobile network operator on the continent and its health speaks volumes about the industry at large.

It’s hard to say if these clashes with regulators is as a result of poor management or just poor oversight on the part of the mother company. One thing is sure however, if MTN does not get its act together soon enough [across the many markets it has a presence in], the end could be in the not distant future.

folarin okunola