Based on a successful ruling by the Federal High Court in Abuja, MTN Nigeria has filed lawsuits against more than 20 banks in an attempt to recoup over N6 billion in interconnect debt from the bank accounts of SleekChip Technologies Limited, a global supplier of Direct Access and National Transit services in Nigeria.
This is based on related court records that Nairametrics has seen and examined exclusively.
This comes after a ruling in November 2024 by FHC Justice Peter Lifu, who mandated that SleekChip pay the plaintiff (MTN) $1,971,409.85 in its Naira equivalent at the then-current Central Bank rate.
Additionally, the court mandated that SleekChip pay interest on the judgment amount at a rate of 2% higher than the Nigerian Interbank Offer Rate. This interest would be computed from the moment the payment was due, which was January 31, 2022, until the judgment amount was finally liquidated.
The Case Facts is that MTN and SleekChip agreed to exchange calls and messages between their networks for a fee (referred to as “interconnect charges”) in compliance with the terms of the Agreement and the Nigerian Communication Act when they signed a network interconnect agreement (“the Agreement”) on July 23, 2019.
According to court filings, SleekChip and MTN signed a network hookup arrangement that same year.
MTN informed the court that SleekChip accrued a debt of $1,971,409.85 (“the debt”) on the applicant’s credit between January 2022 and October 2022 as a result of phone conversations and messages between the parties.
Between February 2022 and October 2022, MTN allegedly gave SleekChip multiple demand notifications requesting payment of the debt.
In a letter dated May 30, 2023, the defendant promised to settle the outstanding balance by July 20, 2023, at the latest.
Since then, the defendant has unjustifiably failed, refused, and omitted to pay down its due to the applicant.
MTN’s legal team claimed that the defendant had acknowledged its debt to the applicant and had never contested it.
The telecom behemoth emphasized that SleekChip had sixty days from the date of invoicing to contest or dispute the applicant’s invoice in accordance with article 6.5 of their agreement, but they never did.
According to Justice Lifu’s 2024 ruling, which Nairametrics was able to view, SleekChip did not raise any merit-based argument against MTN’s lawsuit.
The judge directed SleekChip to pay the judgment amount after stating satisfaction with the proof of service and hearing notices and following the court’s regulations.
The Measures Taken by MTN Against Banks which is in accordance with the ruling of Justice Lifu in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1264/2023, which was delivered on November 7, 2024, MTN initiated garnishee proceedings against more than 20 banks after obtaining the favorable judgment against SleekChip. The garnishees sought the attachment of the judgment sum of N3,284,055,355.93, which is the Naira equivalent of the judgment sum of $1,971,409.85 owed to the judgment creditor at the then-current Central Bank Rate of NGN 1665.8410:$1.
A garnishee proceeding is a court procedure in which a judgment creditor tries to collect money owed to them from a third party that owns the judgment debtor’s assets.
“The MTN legal team also prayed for a garnishee order Nisi that attaches N1,926,786,156.47, which is interest on the principal judgment sum as of November 7, 2024, per Order/Judgment of Hon. Justice P.O. Lifu delivered on November 7, 2024, in Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/1264/2023.”
The Court Cases when the matter was called on May 16, 2025, the majority of the banks and MTN’s legal team were in court.
According to MTN’s legal team, “almost” every bank sent the tech giant affidavits to show cause outlining SleekChip Technologies’ cash that were held with them.
Since the judgment debtor has no account opening package with more than ten banks, the MTN team requested that the court exempt them from the garnishee proceedings.
In response, the designated banks were released by Justice Lifu.
A number of banks reported to the court that they had complied with his show-cause orders.
However, they criticized MTN’s legal team for requesting that SleekChip Technologies’ accounts be searched further using related BVN numbers, even though the court had never issued such orders.
According to Nairametrics, the case has been postponed for a follow-up hearing until June 26, 2025.
Things you should be aware of
The case demonstrates the communication behemoth’s decision to use the legal system to collect debts.
The cost that telecom companies pay one another for calls that end up on their networks is known as the interconnect rate.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) gave MTN permission to cut off a few Value Added Service (VAS) providers in 2023 because they had not paid their interconnect bills.
Exchange Telecommunications Limited, SleekChip Technologies, and others were impacted.
The NCC also gave MTN Nigeria permission to cut Exchange Telecommunications Limited off from its network in 2024.
The telecom regulator stated in a public notification that the termination warning was sent after interconnect charges were not paid.
The NCC sent out a similar warning of disconnection for Globacom and MTN earlier in 2024.
In that instance, MTN was given permission to partially cut off Globacom due to its non-payment of interconnect debt.
Globacom received a pre-disconnection notice of ten days. But once the ten days had passed, the Commission declared that the two MNOs had come to an understanding and that disconnection was no longer necessary.
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