Johannesburg, South African mobile phone operator MTN Group has suspended dividend pay-outs from its Nigerian unit.

According to CEOAFRICA’s source, Signal Ng, it said on Monday, amid allegations that it illegally moved $14 billion out of the West African country.

In it's defence against the repatriated funds, MTN Nigeria clarified that “MTN Nigeria continues to refute the allegations that MTN Nigeria had improperly repatriated funds from Nigeria.”

Nigeria’s upper house of parliament last month agreed to investigate whether Africa’s biggest telecoms company unlawfully repatriated $13.92 billion between 2006 and 2016 in which the Johannesburg-based company reported a slight fall in the number of users in the third quarter due to a weaker showing in a fiercely competitive home market, where it vies for market share with Vodacom and Cell C.