The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has commended the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for suspending the enforcement of the Digital, Electronic, Online and Non-Traditional Consumer Lending (DEON) regulations on telecommunications services, describing the move as a major step toward restoring regulatory certainty and investor confidence in Nigeria’s telecom sector.
The development comes as airtime and data credit services gradually return across the country’s mobile networks following weeks of disruption that affected millions of subscribers.
Airtel Nigeria has fully restored airtime credit services, while Globacom (Glo) has also resumed operations. The suspension of the services had left an estimated 40 million active users, mostly low-income, prepaid subscribers, without access to the airtime and data advances they rely on for daily communication and business activities.
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, ALTON Chairman, said the FCCPC’s decision demonstrates a recognition of the existing regulatory framework governing the telecommunications sector.
“We commend the FCCPC for taking this decision in the interests of Nigerian consumers and the telecommunications industry,” Adebayo said.
According to him, the suspension acknowledges that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), as the statutory regulator of the telecom industry, remains the appropriate authority for overseeing telecom-related products and services.
“Suspending the DEON regulations as they apply to telecom services recognises that the established regulatory architecture, with the NCC as the sector’s primary regulator, is the appropriate framework for governing these products. That recognition matters enormously for industry stability and investor confidence,” he stated.
Adebayo argued that the recent disruption highlighted the critical role airtime credit plays in Nigeria’s economy, particularly among lower-income earners.
“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,” he said.
“Removing that infrastructure, even temporarily, had consequences that went far beyond the telecommunications sector.”
Industry estimates place the annual airtime credit market between N300 billion and N400 billion.
The controversy started in April when MTN, Airtel, Glo and T2mobile suspended airtime credit services following an FCCPC directive requiring compliance with the DEON framework.
The FCCPC had classified airtime credit services as consumer lending products, bringing them under regulations initially introduced to curb unethical practices among digital lending platforms.
However, the move triggered a jurisdictional dispute with the NCC, which maintains regulatory oversight of telecommunications services under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.
The disagreement eventually moved to the courts.
On April 15, the Federal High Court in Lagos granted an interim injunction restraining the FCCPC from enforcing the DEON regulations against members of the Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPAN).
A second Federal High Court order in Abuja on April 24 also restrained MTN and Airtel from restricting licensed Value Added Services (VAS) providers from operating on their networks.
Subsequently, the FCCPC’s attempt to overturn the Lagos court order was rejected on April 28, further strengthening the position of telecom operators and service providers.
