"MTN" a contributor of Boko Haram Insurgency
The Nigeria biggest telecommunication company MTN has been accused by President Buhari of fueling the
Islamist-led insurgency in Nigeria by failing to disconnect unregistered
sim cards. Muhammadu Buhari made the comment during a visit to Nigeria by his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma.Nigeria believes Boko Haram militants use unregistered sim cards to co-ordinate attacks.
"You know how the unregistered [sim cards] are being used by terrorists and between 2009 and today, at least 10,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram," President Buhari said at a joint press conference with Mr Zuma.
Other mobile phone operators complied with a mid-2015 deadline to register all sim cards, but "unfortunately, MTN was very very slow and contributed to the casualties", Mr Buhari added, in his first comments on the issue.
"Nigeria initially imposed a $5.2bn fine on MTN in October, but brought it down to $3.4bn, MTN, which was in talks with Nigeria to reduce the fine further, could make gradual payments,"said President Buhari.
Last month, MTN said it had dropped court action to challenge the fine, and had paid $250m as part of efforts to reach an "amicable settlement".
MTN has 231 million subscribers in 22 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. However, Nigeria is its biggest market.In September, the company was named as most-admired brand in Africa in the Brand Africa 100 awards, beating Samsung, while it was also awarded the continent's most valuable brand, worth $4.6bn.
MTN was South Africa's second mobile operator when it was set up in 1994 after the end of apartheid.
It began its expansion across Africa four years later with operations in Rwanda, Uganda and Swaziland.
The six-year insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria has killed some 17,000 people and forced more than 2.6 million from their homes.
"In December that Boko Haram was "technically" defeated but attacks have continued,"said Buhari.
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