Nigeria’s largest telecommunications operator, MTN, has said it will only resume its airtime lending service after specific legal and regulatory conditions are met, as uncertainty continues to shape the sector despite partial restoration by other network operators.
The company’s position comes amid ongoing effects of a Federal High Court order in Lagos that restrained the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) from enforcing its Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations 2025 (DEON Regulations), prompting a regulatory rethink across the industry.
While some operators have begun restoring airtime lending services following the FCCPC’s suspension of enforcement of the regulations, MTN says it remains on hold pending clear legal direction.
MTN Nigeria’s Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer, Tobechukwu Okigbo, said the company’s decision is guided strictly by compliance and regulatory certainty.
Okigbo explained that MTN would only resume airtime advance services under two conditions.
“In terms of what needs to happen for us to resume airtime advance service, there are essentially two conditions,” he said. “First, we would require either a court ruling that sets aside the regulations empowering the FCCPC to license, which has not happened, or a clear directive instructing us to reinstate the service.”
He added that without either condition being met, the company cannot proceed with restoration of the service.
The regulatory dispute began after the FCCPC classified airtime credit services as consumer lending products and moved to bring them under the DEON regulatory framework, originally designed to regulate aspects of Nigeria’s digital lending ecosystem.
The move led to the suspension of airtime lending services across major operators in April, including MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and T2Mobile, affecting millions of subscribers who rely on short-term airtime advances for communication.
Industry estimates place Nigeria’s airtime credit market at between N300 billion and N400 billion annually.
The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has said recent developments have improved clarity in the sector and are gradually paving the way for a return of full services across networks.
ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, said the industry had already begun to see partial restoration of services and expects wider resumption as regulatory clarity improves.
“The regulatory environment is now clearer, and we are confident that full restoration is imminent,” Adebayo said. “Two of the major operators have already restored services, and we expect others to follow with urgency in the interest of subscribers.”
Adebayo also stressed the importance of the service to millions of Nigerians, describing airtime credit as a critical support mechanism for low-income users who rely on it for daily communication.
“What this episode demonstrated is that airtime credit is not a financial product in the way regulators initially characterised it. It is economic infrastructure that approximately 40 million people use regularly, with the vast majority of them at the base of the economy. Removing that infrastructure, even temporarily, had consequences that went far beyond the telecom sector,” he said.
For now, MTN’s conditional stance underscores the lingering legal and regulatory uncertainty in Nigeria’s airtime lending space, even as parts of the industry continue a gradual return to normal operations.