The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has stated that the listing of the shares of MTN Nigeria on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recently was a deliberate act orchestrated by the commission to attract further investment into the telecommunications sector.

MTN Nigeria has announced its transformation to a public liability company and on May 16, 2019 listed about 20 billion ordinary shares by way of introduction on the floor of the NSE.

Director, public affairs, NCC, Dr. Henry Nkemadu said the listing of MTN was part of the settlement agreement reached between the NCC and MTN Nigeria on June 10, 2016, following a court-ordered out-of-court settlement between the two parties towards resolving the payment of N1.04 trillion imposed by the NCC on MTN for infraction of the NCC’s Registration of Telephone Subscribers Regulations 2011.

“The listing was never a voluntary decision by MTN Management but rather a development that came about through regulatory exigencies by the NCC, as the country’s independent regulatory authority, to ensure industry sustainability and level-playing field for all stakeholders in the industry,” he said.

Nkemadu stated that while the MTN listing on the NSE brought so much joy to the investment community in the country, the landmark listing was traceable to the firm, fair forthright and transparent regulatory stance of the Commission.

One of the cardinal resolutions reached in the bipartite agreement between MTN and NCC in 2016 on the SIM infraction dispute, therefore, was for MTN to “undertake immediate steps to ensure the listing of its shares on the NSE as soon as commercially and legally- possible after the date of execution of this Settlement Agreement.”

“Suffice to say that through this smart regulation and intervention by the NCC, leading to the listing of MTN on the NSE, the Commission has opened another chapter in the history of telecommunication industry by empowering Nigerians to control, own and manage one of dominant telecommunications companies in the country by owning shares in MTN Nigeria”, Nkemadu said.

He said one of the greatest advantages of the MTN listing, facilitated by the NCC, is that it opened up the telecom industry for greater investment, giving Nigerians the opportunities to invest in publicly-quoted companies like MTN. Just a fortnight ago, Airtel Africa followed suit and listed its shares on the NSE also.

“In addition to benefits to the consumers, we all know that telecoms is a capital-intensive industry and of late, we found out that the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the sector has not been as much as it used to be and there is so much for the telcos to still do in terms of expansion and this expansion requires capital. Industry issue bordering on poor quality of service is being partly traced to lack of sufficient infrastructure covering the entire country.

“Some of the benefits of MTN listing and those of other operators to follow, therefore, is that the telco would be able to raise capital for expansion which, in turn, will bring about an improvement in the quality of service and quality of experience for the consumers of telecoms services, which is also a cardinal function of the Commission” he added.