Safrica's Zuma holds 'fruitful discussions' with Nigeria's Buhari

Mar 10, 2016 South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma recently held bilateral meetings with his Nigerian counterpart as part of a two-day state visit to Nigeria.

During the visit, discussions on how to increase economic activity between the two nations and the multi-million dollar fine imposed by Nigeria on South Africa telecoms MTN took center-stage.

Speaking during a joint news conference with President Buhari, Zuma said:

“We have had very fruitful discussions today as we reviewed various bilateral and multilateral issues. We have noted with satisfaction the ever-growing cooperation in many sectors including trade and investment, defence and security, immigration matters, energy, mineral resources, to mention but a few,”

Nigeria, which is Africa’s biggest oil producer, is currently circumnavigating one of its worst economic crises in years following a drop in global crude prices. On this backdrop, a number of South African companies have indicated that they may exit the country.

Nigeria had earlier imposed a multi-million dollar fine on South Africa telecommunications company, MTN, for failing to disconnect unregistered SIM cards.

Commenting on this, President Buhari said:

“The concern of the federal government was basically on the security, not the fine, imposed on MTN. You know how the unregistered GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) are being used by terrorists and between 2009 and today at least 10,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram. At least 10,000. That was why NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) asked MTN and GLO and the rest of them to register GSMs. Unfortunately, MTN was very, very slow and contributed to the casualty.”