By Modupe Gbadeyanka
After several delays, the management of MTN Nigeria has finally submitted an application to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the listing of its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), multiple reports suggest.
The listing ought to have taken place last year, but further issues the telecommunications giant had with the Nigerian government frustrated the much-awaited listing.
Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed the firm, which has its parent company in South Africa, to refund the $8.1 billion it allegedly repatriated illegally to its home country between 2006 and 2016.
Weeks after this directive, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Abubakar Malami, asked the network operator to pay $2 billion in outstanding taxes for 10 years.
The company contested these at the court and later, the apex bank asked MTN Nigeria to only pay $53 million. However, its issue with the AGF seems not to be sorted yet.
Last month, MTN announced the change of its status from a limited liability company to a public liability company in preparation of its listing on the Nigerian bourse, seven months after it commenced trading of its shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
At the weekend, it was reported that MTN Nigeria applied to SEC for permission to commence its listing on the NSE.
“What they applied for is registration for listing; that is just to convert to a publicly quoted company where, for now, private shareholders can dispose of their shares at the exchange,” a source was quoted in the reports.
The company plans to list the Nigerian unit without raising any money from investors, and has said it would simplify its capital structure before listing on NSE.
MTN is Africa’s biggest telecommunication company with 52.3 million subscribers in Nigeria as at 2017.
The company was mandated to join Nigerian listed companies after getting in trouble with regulators few years ago.
