Nigeria Halts Nokia’s Operations Saying Company Has No License

The Nigerian Communications Commission halted Nokia’s operations in the country on grounds that it has no license.
“‘They need a sales and installations license,” Tony Ojobo, spokesman of the regulator, said Friday by phone from the capital, Abuja. “They had started the process about three weeks ago, but stopped somewhere.”
Nokia and the regulator are in talks to resolve the matter and the company is required to pay 2 million naira ($6,354) for the license, he said.

Nokia until some years ago supplied the vast majority of mobile phones in Africa’s most populated country and is seeking to partake in the expansion of faster mobile networks as Nigerians buy more smartphones. The Middle East and Africa contributed 9.4 percent to the Helsinki-based sales last year, according to its annual report.
The administrative office in Lagos has been “temporarily closed”, and the company is working to “quickly correct” the situation, Nokia said in an e-mailed statement.


Bloomberg News