Telecom giant, MTN Nigeria, has sued more than twenty commercial banks in its bid to recover about N3 billion interconnect debt from SleekChip Technologies Limited’s bank accounts following a favourable judgement by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
SleekChip, an international Direct Access and National Transit service provider in Nigeria, was ordered to pay MTN the sum of $1,971,409.85 in an interconnect service debt between January 2022 and October 2022, according to a court order by Justice Peter Lifu in November 2024. In addition, the court ordered the company to pay an interest rate of 2 per cent above the Nigerian Interbank Offer Rate on the judgment sum, calculated from when the payment was due (Jan 31, 2022) until the final liquidation of the judgment sum. The interest rate is structured to account for inflationary effects amid the prevailing periods.
After the court’s judgment, MTN launched a garnishee proceeding against over 20 banks, seeking the attachment of the judgment sum of N3,284,055,355.93, being the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Naira-dollar equivalent rate of N1,665.8410:$1 on November 7, 2024 – the judgment day. A garnishee proceeding is a legal process wherein a judgment creditor seeks to recover a debt owed to them from a third party who holds assets belonging to the judgment debtor.
“A Garnishee Order Nisi attaching the sum of N1,926,786,156.47, being interest on the principal judgment sum as of 7th November 2024, per Order/Judgment of Hon. Justice P.O. Lifu delivered on 7th November 2024, in Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/1264/2023,” the MTN legal team further stated.
In Court proceedings held on May 16, 2025, MTN’s legal team explained that the mobile operator had received affidavits to show cause from “virtually” all the banks, detailing SleekChip Technologies’ funds domiciled with them. Therein, MTN asked the court to discharge over 10 banks from the garnishee proceedings as SleekChip has no account with them.
While Justice Lifu discharged the identified banks, the banks faulted MTN’s legal team’s request for further search on SleekChip Technologies’ accounts using associated BVN numbers, when the court never made such orders. The Federal High Court in Abuja then adjourned the case to 26th June 2025 for further hearing.
Background of the MTN-SleekChip interconnect rate debt
MTN Nigeria and SleekChip entered a network interconnect agreement on 23rd July 2019, where the parties agreed to exchange calls between their networks for a fee – interconnect charges – in accordance with the terms of the Agreement and provisions of the Nigerian Communication Act. Interconnect rate is the price that telecommunications operators pay each other for calls terminating on their networks.
Following the agreement, it was revealed that under calls and messages exchanged between the parties, SleekChip accumulated a debt of $1,971,409.85 to the credit of the applicant between January 2022 and October 2022. MTN noted that it sent several demand notices to SleekChip between February 2022 and October 2022, demanding payment of the debt.
Meanwhile, SleekChip, in a letter dated 30th May 2023, offered to pay the indebted amount on or before 20th July 2023. Since then, the company has failed to adhere to its promise, which warranted MTN to file legal charges against the company. The network provider also stressed that under clause 6.5 of their Agreement, SleekChip had sixty days from the date of invoicing to challenge the applicant’s invoice as provided by the Agreement, which it never adhered to.
“The defendant has since failed, refused, and neglected to liquidate its indebtedness to the applicant without justification. The defendant has never disputed the debt but has admitted its indebtedness to the applicant,” MTN’s legal team asserted.
According to reports, Justice Lifu observed that SleekChip filed no defence on the merits against MTN’s case. With court rules, satisfactory expression, proof of service, and hearing notices, the court ordered SleekChip to pay the judgment sum.
The case stems from an ongoing effort by MTN Nigeria to recover its debts from the interconnect service provided to Value Added Service providers (VAS). In 2023, MTN received approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to disconnect some VAS operators over their failure to pay interconnect debts, where SleekChip Technologies, Exchange Telecommunications Limited, and others were affected.
A statement released by the NCC says:
“The commission, having examined the application and circumstances surrounding the indebtedness, determined that the affected licensees do not have sufficient and or any justifiable reason for non-payment of the international interconnect charges and therefore decided to grant approval as requested.”
Also in 2024, the NCC issued a similar notice of disconnection regarding MTN and Globacom. In that dispute, MTN was approved to implement a partial disconnection of Globacom over its refusal to pay interconnect debt, where Globacom was given a 10-day pre-disconnection notice. Meanwhile, at the expiration of the 10 days, NCC announced that the two network operators had reached an agreement and there was no longer any need for disconnection.
The issue isn’t new. In 2019, interconnect debt affecting the Nigerian telecoms industry was put at about 165 billion naira (around $544 million at that time), where MTN was owed about 45 per cent of these debts, mainly by VAS providers, vendors, and other operators.
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