By Nse Anthony-Uko (with agency report)
(Sundiata Post) – South African telecoms giant MTN on Wednesday denied an allegation that it had illegally repatriated $13.92 billion from Nigeria, saying the claim was without merit.
The Senate on Tuesday, agreed to investigate the allegation that MTN, Africa’s biggest telecoms company, illegally transferred the money out of the West African country.
MTN is allegedly involved in the illegal forex outflow of $13.92 billion executed for 10 years from 2006 to 2016 through the use of Stanbic IBTC, Diamond Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Citi Bank. A serving minister is also indicted.
The Minister of Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Elenamah; founder, Diamond Bank, Pascal Dozie; founding partner, Aluko & Oyebode, Gbenga Oyebode; Chairman, Aeromaritime Gruop, Victor Odili; and Ahmed Dasuki along with four banks have been accused of illegal repatriation of funds for MTN.
Of the total $13.92 billion, StanbicIBTC was responsible for $4.87 billion, Citibank $2.98 billion, Standard Chartered $5.72 billion and Diamond Bank $0.35 billion.
The Senate asked its Committee on Banking and Insurance to look into the issue which analysts argued that the lawmakers lack the capability for such high degree investigation.
“The allegations made against MTN are completely unfounded and without any merit,” MTN Nigeria chief executive Ferdi Moolman said in brief statement.
The allegation threatens to raise tensions between Nigeria and MTN just three months after the South African firm agreed to pay a reduced fine of N330 billion in a settlement with Abuja over unregistered SIM cards.
MTN is the largest mobile phone operator in Nigeria, which accounts for around one third of the company’s revenues. The company had threatened to pull out of Nigeria during the dispute over unregistered SIM cards.
“It’s not a good development but it may stem from the forex crunch in Nigeria. They don’t want forex to leave the country unnecessarily,” said Cobus de Hart, an analyst at NKC African Economics.
“It highlights the fact that the Nigerian central bank wants to maintain a firm grip on the forex market and this will obviously not bode well for investor sentiment,” he said.
MTN shares fell more than 3 per cent on Tuesday but opened 1 percent firmer on Wednesday.