Mcebisi Jonas, the Chairman, MTN Group, stated this when he visited Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari along with top executives of the telecoms company at State House, Abuja, on Tuesday, January 28th, 2020.
Jonas said the Group has the utmost commitment to investing in Nigeria, from its operations in the country to strengthen its network and systems.
“We are fully aligned with the strategic agenda of the government, and are committed to strengthening the digital economy of the country,” he said.
The MTN Group Chairman told President Buhari that “most of the issues we raised during your visit to South Africa have been addressed, and there is progress on the remaining ones.”
While receiving the team, President Buhari said partnerships between the public and private sectors remained the most viable means of bringing prosperity to the masses.
“I am pleased to hear of the progress you are making in Nigeria, especially in supporting our digital inclusion programs. Your proposed projects, such as the rural telephony project, will surely complement our economic diversification and financial inclusion programs by connecting the producers based in rural areas to consumers located in our major towns and cities,” Femi Adesina, media aide to the President quoted President Buhari.
President Buhari said Nigeria is Africa’s largest telecommunications market, and MTN’s largest market, adding: “Our hope is for operators like MTN to continue to focus on delivering quality service at reasonable prices. If we put our minds together, such win-win positions are achievable.”
He said the government was looking at ways to increase the level of security across critical national infrastructure, noting that it would guarantee seamless service delivery and also facilitate investments across the country.
Nigeria drops multi-billion dollar tax dispute against MTN
The visitation is coming less than a month after Nigeria's attorney general dropped demand over the payment of $2 billion in tax arrears against MTN.
In various correspondence between the office of the Attorney General and MTN Nigeria in September 2018, the AGF noted that MTN should have paid approximately $2 billion in taxes relating to the importation of foreign equipment and payments to foreign suppliers since 2008.
MTN denied owing any outstanding tax, and accused AGF Abubakar Malami, of “playing games” over $2 billion tax demands.
