Court Adjourns CBN, MTN Hearing to January 22

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has again adjourned hearing of the case between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and MTN, a leading telecom company, to Tuesday, January 22, 2019.

MTN is contesting the $8.1 billion the nation’s apex bank wants it (MTN) to transfer back to Nigeria. The central bank had fined four banks for the alleged illegal repatriation of the funds for MTN some years ago to South Africa, the parent country of the telecom firm.

At the hearing of the matter on Wednesday, counsels of the CBN and MTN requested for an adjournment, which the judge granted and fixed for next month.

It was noted that the adjournment was requested for in order to allow both parties to smoothen their out-of-court settlement talks.

“We are still making moves towards an out of court settlement,” a central bank lawyer told the court on Wednesday. Nigeria is MTN’s biggest market, serving 56 million people in the country and accounting for a third of the South African company’s annual core profit.