FREQUENCY FEES
MTN to comply with Benin demand
MTN Benin says it will comply with a deadline set by the country’s telecommunications regulator, which has warned that the mobile operator could face sanctions over unpaid fees. The company has been given until the end of the week to submit a response to the regulator, Arcep, explaining why it has not yet paid frequency fees for 2016 and 2017, which MTN says are "excessive" at $213m. The company would meet the deadline, said MTN Benin CEO Stephen Blewett. Benin has shut down other telecommunications operators in recent months. Bell Benin Communications’ licence was withdrawn in August, while Arcep declined to renew the licence of Globacom Benin in September. MTN’s fee invoices were "very excessive", as they amounted to three-times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, said Imtiaz Suliman, portfolio manager at Sentio Capital. MTN generated R4bn in revenue in 2016 in Benin, where it had 4-million subscribers. Its financial statements showed that its market sh...
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