Telecom
CBN Asks MTN for 15% Interest on $8.1Bn Allegedly Moved Abroad
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is asking a Lagos court to make South Africa’s MTN pay 15 percent annual interest on the $8.1 billion it claims was illegally moved abroad, according to court documents seen by Reuters.
CBN also asked the court to dismiss MTN’s case seeking to stop the monetary authority’s order for the telecoms firm to repatriate the funds back to Nigeria, the documents showed.
The CBN had alleged in late August that MTN and four of its banks — Standard Chartered, Citigroup, Stanbic IBTC and Diamond Bank — illegally repatriated the money from Nigeria. MTN sought an injunction in early September to buy itself time and fight the claim in its biggest market, which wiped as much as 36% off its market value.
The transfers “may have been premeditated and contrived as a scam to make and maximise profits, defraud the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to enjoy unlimited foreign exchange income perpetually from a single investment without complying with the foreign exchange laws and regulations of Nigeria,” the central bank said in the documents.