Yesterday MTN received a letter from the Nigerian Central Bank claiming that $8.1bn worth of dividends repatriated between 2007 and 2015 was done so improperly and should be brought back to Nigeria.
MTN came back with the following statement.
MTN Nigeria strongly refutes these allegations and claims. No dividends have been declared or paid by MTN Nigeria other than pursuant to CCI's issued by our bankers and with the approval of the CBN as required by law.
The issues surrounding the CCI'shave already been the subject of a thorough enquiry by the Senate of Nigeria. In September 2016 the Senate mandated the Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions to carry out a holistic investigation on compliance with the Foreign exchange (monitoring and miscellaneous) Act by MTN Nigeria & Others. In its report issued in November 2017, the findings evidenced that MTN Nigeria did not collude to contravene the foreign exchange laws and there were no negative recommendations made against MTN Nigeria.
This is incredibly frustrating. There is no way that MTN would have been able to repatriate such a large amount of money without the central bank facilitating it all. This smells like a central bank that is not independent to a government that has big fiscal issues. Remember too that the Naira and the Rand have been crushed against the US dollar over that period. Pegging this amount in US $ magnifies the issue for MTN.
MTN is the biggest foreign investor in Nigeria and has connected millions of people. People who have started businesses, self-educated, done research, closed deals, connected to loved ones on MTN networks.
This is another huge step backwards for Nigeria and another very disappointing turn of events for MTN.
We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will advise clients on what to do once we have more clarity.