Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has approved nine companies to offer airtime and data credit services under its controversial DEON Consumer Lending Regulations 2025, even after previously suspending enforcement of the framework.
The newly licensed firms include Technotrends Platforms Nigeria Limited, Total Tim Nigeria Limited, Fonyou Technologies Nigeria Limited, Rane Interactive Medien CLS Limited, MRS Innovation Nigeria Limited, Mode NG Applications Nigeria Limited, ERL Telecoms Service Limited, Cloud Interactive Associate Limited, and Coverage Broadband Limited.
The approvals follow a period of uncertainty in Nigeria’s telecom and digital credit space, during which major operators temporarily halted airtime credit services in response to FCCPC’s regulatory directive. The suspension affected millions of subscribers who rely on short-term airtime advances.
Although Airtel Nigeria and Globacom have since restored their airtime credit services, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc—the country’s largest mobile operator with over 95 million subscribers—had not resumed the service as of the time of reporting.
At the heart of the dispute is a fundamental disagreement over how airtime and data credit should be classified. The FCCPC maintains that the service qualifies as consumer lending, arguing that customers receive value upfront and repay later through top-ups.
Telecommunications operators, however, insist the service falls strictly under telecom value-added services already regulated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), warning that overlapping oversight could create regulatory uncertainty.
The disagreement has sparked broader industry debate over regulatory boundaries in Nigeria’s fast-growing digital financial ecosystem, where telecom infrastructure increasingly intersects with financial services.
Market valuation estimates also remain contested. Some figures attributed to FCCPC sources place annual airtime credit-related transactions at about N3 trillion (roughly $2.21 billion). However, industry estimates from BusinessDay, Technext, and the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) suggest a significantly smaller market size, ranging between N300 billion and N400 billion.
The chairman of ALTON, Gbenga Adebayo, has welcomed the suspension of the regulations but cautioned that inconsistent regulatory frameworks could undermine investor confidence in the sector.
Similar regulatory coordination models in countries such as Kenya and Ghana have been cited by analysts as examples where telecom and financial regulators share clearer oversight responsibilities for digital credit products.
Industry experts say the outcome of Nigeria’s ongoing dispute could shape not only the future of airtime lending but also broader investor sentiment toward the country’s digital economy, one of the largest and fastest-expanding in Africa.