Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, in an interview with Arise TV on 27th January, reacted to the MTN-Glo interconnect debt issue.
Recall that the NCC had on January 8, 2024, published a pre-disconnection notice informing subscribers of the approval granted MTN Nigeria Communications Plc to commence the phased disconnection of Globacom Limited with effect from January 18, 2024, due to long-standing interconnection debt dispute between the parties.
During the interview, Toriola said “Suffice it to say that we have between the NCC and the CBN, the most developed regulatory bodies who arbitrate on such matters and whatever we do in that dispute or that discourse will be in line with what the NCC dictates.
The NCC is very competent in addressing such issues; they’ve come out with authorization for disconnection and that has been put on hold to give an opportunity to address these issues. But what I can say is that MTN will always act in the most professional, most compliant manner, and we will not do anything that hasn’t been authorised by our licensing conditions or the regulator.”
While probing further on industry dynamics and the origin of the company, he reiterated that the ICT company is a solely Nigerian company. “We are a Nigerian company, registered in Nigeria with Nigerian shareholders. If you look at our leadership cadre, you’ll see that the company is 90% led at the very top level by Nigerians, and I don’t think we have more than 10 expatriates in this company.
“We have a very seasoned board of Nigerian directors as well as some international directors. We’ve grown to this size because we’ve done the right things at the right time. You cannot force customers to make their choice with their wallets,” he added.
The ICT company remains committed to integrating digital competencies, prioritising customer satisfaction, whilst operating with the highest levels of compliance to industry standards.
