Note that the $5.2B fine was not an arbitrary figure. Right from day one, the penalty for not deactivating unregistered SIM Cards was 200,000 Naira per SIM card

Note that the $5.2B fine was not an arbitrary figure. Right from day one, the penalty for not deactivating unregistered SIM Cards was 200,000 Naira per SIM card. The 5.2B fine was arrived at by multiplying the number of unregistered/partially registered SIM cards by N200K. MTN simply ignored the law believing it wouldn't be applied to them.