MTN Nigeria has sued over twenty banks in its bid to recover about N6 billion interconnect debt from the bank accounts of SleekChip Technologies Limited, an international Direct Access and National Transit service provider in Nigeria, based on a favorable judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
This is according to associated court documents exclusively seen and reviewed by Naijaonpoint.
The development follows a judgment in November 2024 by Justice Peter Lifu of the FHC, which ordered SleekChip to pay the plaintiff (MTN) the sum of $1,971,409.85 in its Naira equivalent at the prevailing Central Bank rate at the time.
The court also ordered SleekChip to pay interest at the rate of 2% above the Nigerian Interbank Offer Rate on the judgment sum, calculated from the date the payment was due, being 31st January 2022, until the final liquidation of the judgment sum.
“The defendant has since failed, refused, and neglected to liquidate its indebtedness to the applicant without justification.
“The defendant has never disputed the debt but has admitted its indebtedness to the applicant,” MTN’s legal team asserted.
A garnishee proceeding is a legal process wherein a judgment creditor seeks to recover a debt owed to them from a third party who holds assets belonging to the judgment debtor.
“A Garnishee Order Nisi attaching the sum of N1,926,786,156.47, being interest on the principal judgment sum as of 7th November 2024, per Order/Judgment of Hon. Justice P.O. Lifu delivered on 7th November 2024, in Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/1264/2023,” the MTN legal team further prayed.
Court Proceedings
The case highlights the communication giant’s move to recover debts through the courts.
Interconnect rate is the price that telecommunications operators pay each other for calls terminating on their networks.
In 2023, MTN received approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to disconnect some Value Added Service (VAS) operators over their failure to pay interconnect debts.
SleekChip Technologies, Exchange Telecommunications Limited, and others were affected.
In 2024, NCC further granted approval to MTN Nigeria to disconnect Exchange Telecommunications Limited from its network.
According to a public notice issued by the telecom regulator, the disconnection notice followed the failure to settle interconnect charges.
Earlier in 2024, the NCC issued a similar notice of disconnection regarding MTN and Globacom.
Earlier in 2024, the NCC issued a similar notice of disconnection regarding MTN and Globacom.
In that case, MTN was granted approval to implement a partial disconnection of Globacom over its refusal to pay interconnect debt.
Globacom was given a 10-day pre-disconnection notice. However, at the expiration of the 10 days, the Commission announced that the two MNOs had reached an agreement and there was no longer any need for disconnection.