MTN Agrees to Pay $1.7 billion Fine to Nigeria Over the Next 3 Years

South African telecoms giant MTN said on Friday it will pay a $1.7 billion (about N330 billion) fine to the Nigerian government in a “full and final settlement” over its failure to disconnect unregistered mobile phone users, Daily Mail reports.

The company made this known in a statement on Friday. The statement read in part:

MTN Nigeria has agreed to pay a total cash amount of N330 billion over three years.

MTN is pleased to inform shareholders that the matter has been resolved with the Federal Government of Nigeria.

MTN executive chairman Phuthuma Nhleko “expresses his thanks and gratitude to (the Nigerian government) for the spirit in which the matter was resolved”.

The company was fined $3.9 billion last year by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over inability to trace the unregistered 5.1 million users in a country faced with kidnapping and terrorism.