Nigeria : South African mobile phone operator MTN fuelled the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria by failing to disconnect millions of unregistered users, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday.
All mobile phone operators in Nigeria were ordered to disconnect unregisteredSIMs by mid-2015 on security grounds but MTN missed the deadline.
The country's communications regulator last October slapped a $3.9-billion fine on the Johannesburg-based firm, which has since paid out $250 million towards the penalty.
The affair cast a shadow over the build-up to the visit of South African President Jacob Zuma and is believed to have been high on the agenda when he met Buhari for talks in the capital, Abuja, on Tuesday.
In his first comments on the issue, Buhari told a joint news conference: "The concern of the federal government was basically on the security, not the fine imposed on the MTN.
"You know how the unregistered GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) are being used by terrorists," he said.
"That was why NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) asked the MTN, Glo and the rest of them to register GSM.
"Unfortunately MTN was very slow and contributed to the casualties."
Boko Haram violence has left at least 17,000 dead and forced more than 2.6 million from their homes since 2009. Buhari announced in December the group was "technically" defeated but attacks continue.
Zuma arrived in Abuja on Tuesday morning in a visit which observers see as an attempt to mend fences between Africa's largest economic powers.
He was given a 21-gun salute when he arrived at the presidential villa, Aso Rock, and inspected a guard of honour before heading inside for talks with Buhari.
On Tuesday afternoon he addressed a joint session of Nigeria's parliament and called for closer ties between the two countries.
