The biggest telco fines in Africa

godfred akoto 08:59 - 05 October 2017

<strong>Kenya's leading telecommunications company Safaricom has been handed a hefty fine by the Communication Authority of Kenya to add to a record increase in fines by regulators across the continent.</strong>

Safaricom's $2.6 million dollar fine was for the company's fourth infraction in being unable to meet the requires level of service as prescribed by the regulator.

The amount however pales in comparison to the $8.5 million dollar fine MTN was slapped with in Rwanda. The South African company which is a market leader in countries like Nigeria and Ghana was fined for running its IT services in Uganda.

MTN retains the crown for the heaviest fine ever handed out to a telco by a regulator. The $5.2 billion that was handed out to the company in Nigeria was the most excessive in the world.

It was in response to the company keeping over 5 million unregistered SIM cards active. The company later managed to get the fine reduced to $3.2 billion.

"There is no comparable fine, anywhere in the world," Roger Entner, of Recon Analytics based in Dedham, Massachusetts, said of the Nigerian sanction. "This is far beyond anything that anybody has ever been levied — by magnitudes."