MTN REFUTES CLAIM OF USD 8.134 BILLION ILLEGAL REPATRIATION BY CBN

LAGOS, Nigeria – One of Nigeria’s telecommunication giant, MTN has refuted allegation that it repatriated the sum of USD 8.134 billion against Nigeria’s Forex regulations to South Africa between 2007 and 2015.

At a press conference, the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) had claimed that the affected money was illegally repatriated through four banks, Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic IBTC , Citibank and Diamond Bankd. The CBN then requested MTN to refund the money to the coffers of the Nigerian government with immediate effect.

The Central Bank also slammed fines on the banks deemed to have connieved with MTN to breach Nigeria’s forex regulation. Standard Chatered was required to pay N2.4bn as fine, Stanbic IBTC to pay N1.8bn as fine, Citibank to pay N1.2bn as fine while Diamond Bank was required to pay N0.25bn.

But in a statement today, MTN Nigeria refuted all the claims. According to the telecommunications company, dividends have neither been declared nor paid other than CCIs issued by the banks with approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria as required by law.

It added that the issue of CCIs has already being an issue of thorough enquiry by the Nigerian Senate.

“In 2016, the Senate mandated the Committee on Banking Insurance and other Financial Institutions to carry out a holistic investigation on compliance with foreign exchange(monitoring and miscellaneous) Act by Mtn Nigeria and others”, MTN said, adding that the findings revealed that it did not collude to contravene foreign exchange laws and that there were no negative recommendations made against MTN.

See full statement below