– Court orders ignored as N400bn telecom credit market remains paralysed
Wale Igbintade
No fewer than 40 million Nigerian telecom subscribers have been left stranded without access to emergency airtime and data services following a deepening regulatory dispute between the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and major telecommunications industry operators.
The dispute pivots over the implementation of new digital lending regulations growing concern across the telecommunications sector, with industry stakeholders warning that millions of Nigerians who depend on emergency airtime and data advances for daily communication, business operations and emergencies have been severely affected.
The crisis has also raised questions over the silence of the Nigerian Communications Commission, as well as the lack of coordinated intervention by relevant government agencies.
The legal dispute intensified after Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa of the Federal High Court in Lagos, in Suit No: FHC/L/CS/760/2026 filed by the Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPAN), issued a Form 45 notice warning against disobedience of the court’s April 15 interim injunction restraining implementation of the regulations.
In a separate ruling delivered on April 24, an Abuja division of the Federal High Court also ordered a halt to further enforcement of the regulations pending judicial review.
However, despite the subsisting court orders, the suspension of telecom lending services has remained in place nationwide.
The FCCPC, has defended the regulations, insisting they are necessary to protect consumers from exploitative lending practices in Nigeria’s rapidly expanding digital credit ecosystem.
According to the commission, the regulations were introduced in response to more than 11,000 consumer complaints involving hidden charges, abusive debt recovery methods, privacy violations and other alleged misconduct by digital lenders.
The FCCPC maintained that its powers under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018 extend to all forms of consumer credit transactions, including airtime and data advances where repayment is subsequently recovered.
The commission further argued that suspending enforcement of the regulations could expose millions of Nigerians to abuse and create regulatory loopholes within the digital lending sector.
Telecom operators and industry groups, however, strongly disagree with the classification of emergency airtime and data services as digital loans.
Operators argued that products such as MTN’s XtraTime and Airtel’s emergency credit are automated telecommunications utility services with transparent repayment structures, fundamentally different from app-based lending platforms accused of predatory practices.
They insisted that applying uniform digital lending regulations to telecom credit infrastructure has disrupted an essential service relied upon daily by low-income Nigerians, small traders, transport workers and rural communities for emergency connectivity.
The crisis has prompted mounting calls for urgent intervention by the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, amid fears that the standoff could damage Nigeria’s digital economy ambitions.
Analysts warn that the regulatory impasse threatens the federal government’s broader objective of transforming Nigeria into a global digital economy hub and could undermine President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s trillion-dollar digital economy target.
Fresh controversy also emerged following allegations that the FCCPC approved five new firms to manage airtime lending operations under the DEON framework shortly after the Lagos court issued its restraining order.
WASPAN, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Regulatory and Partnership, Osa Umweni, alleged that preliminary corporate registry checks revealed that some of the approved firms possessed limited operational history, raising concerns over transparency and due process in the selection procedure.
Meanwhile, financial experts have expressed concerns that poor coordination among regulators, particularly between the Central Bank of Nigeria led by Olayemi Cardoso and the Presidency’s technology policy team, could weaken investor confidence and destabilise Nigeria’s digital investment climate.
Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, had earlier warned that the lingering uncertainty could discourage foreign investors seeking stable and predictable regulatory environments.
As the standoff continues, millions of Nigerians remain unable to access emergency airtime and data services, while pressure mounts on the federal government to broker a resolution capable of restoring stability to one of the country’s fastest-growing digital service sectors.
