After months of negotiations, the federal government and telecoms giant, MTN, have reached an out-court-settlement.
It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had accused the South African company of illegally moving N8.1 billion out of the country in contravention of foreign exchange regulations.
Also, the CBN also slammed a fine on four banks it claimed aided MTN to perpetuate the fraud namely: Diamond Bank, Stanbic Bank, Cit Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
The Apex Bank had demanded that the company return the $8.1 billion “to the coffers of the CBN”, but MTN denied any wrongdoings and dragged the Bank to court challenging the fine.
According to the CBN, MTN and the four banks had deliberately flouted the “laws and regulations…including the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1995 and the Foreign Exchange Manual, 2006.”
CBN said the banks allegedly colluded with MTN, using irregular Certificates of Capital Importation (CCI), to illegally remit foreign exchange abroad and they were slammed a total fine of N5.87 billion
In a counter move, the government lawyers also filed a suit accusing MTN of illegally repatriating the money out of the country.
Furthermore, the CBN had come out last month in a press statement saying that after further discussion with the management of the telecommunications company; and with additional documents presented, it was reviewing the sanctions imposed on the four banks.
However, lawyers to MTN’s, Wole Olanipekun, Damian Dodo, Fabian Ajokwu and Adeniyi Adegbonmire yesterday told the trial judge Saliu Saidu, that the parties had resolved the dispute amicably.
He said the terms of the settlement were filed on December 28 last year.
Counsel to CBN, Henry Ejiofor, confirmed that both parties had settled out of court.
As at December 2018, parties in the suit had informed the court they were exploring an out-of-court settlement.
