How Nigerian Trade & Investment Minister Helped MTN Illegally Transferred 'Mind Boggling' Sum Out Of Nigeria!

The amount of money which South Africa's MTN Group <MTNJ.J> is alleged to have illegally moved out of Nigeria is "mind boggling", a Nigerian lawmaker said on Thursday at the start of a parliamentary investigation into the telecoms company, finance.yahoo.com reports.

He did not specify what the alleged amount might be. Nigeria's upper house of parliament agreed last month to investigate whether the company unlawfully repatriated $13.92 billion between 2006 and 2016.

MTN shares fell 3.2 percent to more than six-year lows after Bloomberg quoted a senator as saying the amount could be "outrageously higher". The shares later pared some losses. The accusations of illegal money transfers were denied by MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Ferdi Moolman, who appeared at the hearing.

"MTN categorically denies all suggestions that its bankers in strict violation of the FEMM Act (Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Act) and Foreign Exchange Manual, repatriated $13.92 billion illegally out of Nigeria," said Moolman.

The allegation is the latest setback for Africa's biggest telecoms firm in its most lucrative but increasingly most problematic market, coming months after it agreed to pay a greatly reduced fine of 330 billion naira ($1.08 billion) to end a long running dispute over unregistered SIM cards.  Read More Here