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MTN has denied paying a bribe to Nigerian officials to reduce its fine to N330 billion ($1.05 billion) as part of settling a dispute over disconnecting unregistered SIM cards.
The South African telecom giant said in a statement on Friday there had been allegations that a top official in the Nigerian presidency took a payment towards reducing the fine.
The company was initially fined $5.2 billion last October for failing to deactivate more than five million unregistered SIM cards.
In June, MTN agreed to pay a reduced fine of N330 billion in a settlement with the Federal Government and said the fine will be paid by MTN Nigeria over three years.