On the one hand, $5.2B in 2 weeks is an unreasonable amount of money, and virtually everyone agrees that the value is only that high because of the kidnapping of the Finance Minister.<p>On the other, MTN's service has been <i>atrocious</i> for the last two years or so (I've been a customer for about 15 years).<p>$5.2B is too much, but they really do deserve a massive fine.
All manner of more recent developments after this article as well:
1] MTN share trading has been suspended on the JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange)
2] In an impressive about turn after threatening to leave South Africa a few weeks ago, they asked the SA government to help negotiate with the Nigerian authorities.
3] Any delay/reduction of the fine has so far been denied by Nigerian authorities.<p>To put the size of the fine into perspective: Nigerian nominal GDP estimate for 2015 (according to Wikipedia) is ~$564B.