Amechi Ogbonna
MTN Group on Friday announced the appointment of South Africa’s former Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas, as its chairman-designate in a board shake-up, that is expected to consolidate and refocus its growth strategies in the years ahead.
Mr Jonas will assume the position of chairman of MTN Group on December 15, once incumbent Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko, steps down, MTN said in the statement. The telecoms provider said it would also establish an international advisory board made up of “prominent persons of considerable and wide-ranging experience”
The advisory board will “counsel, guide and support the MTN Group” in its vision of growing its African and global footprint in telecommunications and increasing digital inclusion, MTN said in an update to shareholders. The IAB will be non-statutory and board members will not have any fiduciary responsibility. Former SA president Thabo Mbeki will be its inaugural chairperson. The advisory board will start on July 1.
Meanwhile MTN shares traded at R106.50 at 11:00 on the JSE, up 2.46 percent on the day. The firm plans to list its Nigerian unit, which has 58 million mobile-phone subscribers, on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos once the tax issue it has with Federal Government is resolved. If it is eventually listed, MTN will be the biggest company on the bourse by revenue, having made sales of $3billion last year. The company had previously denied it didn’t pay taxes properly to Nigerian authorities contrary to the government claims.
In 2018, the firm had a bitter legal tussle with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over alleged illegal dividend remittances estimated at over $8.1billion the country. This was before the country’s Attorney-General declared that MTN also underpaid its tax obligations to the government with over $2billion
The CBN had insisted that MTN Nigeria would refund the sum of $8,134,312,397, over allegations that it violated the extant laws and regulations of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, including the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1995, and the Foreign Exchange Manual, 2006.
Although MTN has since reached an out of court settlement with CBN after a regulatory forbearance in December of 2018 to allow it send back $53million as full and final settlement and clearing itself of any wrongdoing, it is yet to resolve the $2billon tax dispute with the Nigerian government. The case has been adjourned to May 7.