MTN paid Nigerian government over N1.7tr as taxes – COO

Africa’s leading telecommunication company, MTN Nigeria, has revealed that it has paid the Nigerian government a total of over N1.7 trillion in taxes till date, saying over 20 million Nigerians live in areas where MTN is the only network provider.

The Chief Operating Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mazen Mroue, disclosed this while speaking on “MTN’s Value Contribution to Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Development,” recently.

He said that despite Nigeria being at crossroads, MTN Nigeria continues to contribute to the country’s socio-economic development in many ways.

According to him, at the last quarter of 2019, the company launched its mobile money service, MoMo Agent, under its subsidiary, the Y’ello Digital Financial Services (YDFS) Limited, noting that since its launch, the financial service has been well received across markets and rural areas in Nigeria.

“In fact we’re busy converting the airtime agents, which are more than half a million scattered in communities across the country, into MoMo Agents,” Mroue said.

Also speaking, MTN’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Ms Linda Saint-Nwafor, said the company’s top objective has always been on how to create value for its customers.

She noted that MTN Nigeria is so good at value creation that the company now has over 61 million subscribers, according to recent data released by the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

She added that “irrespective of the challenges with working in Nigeria – such as the highly contestable fine by the Nigeria’s apex bank, and the attacks on MTN’s infrastructure by Nigerians in retaliation to xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa – MTN has remained a strong and highly sought after development partner of governments at various levels.”

“One example is the company’s unveiling of its 5G capabilities with a live demo session in Abuja on November 25, 2019.

“For the impressive demonstration, a first in the West African subregion, MTN Nigeria collaborated with its partners such as Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, NCC, and the Ministry of Communications Technology and Digital Economy,” Ms Saint-Nwafor stated.

“We’re good together”, she added, noting that MTN Nigeria’s doors are always open to “whoever and whatever business that believes it has that killer-solution tailored to meeting the requirement of our customers… If you have any solution that will meet the requirements of our customers and will fill a socio-economic gap, please come let’s have some conversation.”