Nigeria slaps $7.38 million fine on Bharti Airtel and other teleco’s

Nigeria’s four mobile operators has been slapped a fine worth $1.17 billion naira ($7.38 million) by the country’s telecom regulator. This penalty comes in the back drop of operators’ failure to meet the quality service regulations by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) also the complaints from customers over the poor quality of service, with frequent dropped calls and network interruptions.

Bharti Airtel, the Indian company, has been ordered to pay 270 million naira while privately-owned and Nigerian Globacom will pay 180 million naira. The other two operators MTN and Etisalat will have to pay 360 million naira each. The operator MTN has blamed the state agencies for poor quality of service.

Nigeria’s telecom market is largely profitable as it is the Africa's second-biggest economy with total population at around 160 million.

Recently, Bharti Airtel has come under scanner of Indian regulatory authorities for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is being probed on the allotment of additional airwaves beyond 6.2 MHz in violation of the subscriber-linked criteria, during the tenure of former communications minister, the late Pramod Mahajan. Minister of State for Finance SS Palanimanickam informed the Rajya Sabha that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was investigating cases against Bharti Airtel under the PMLA and Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).