Nigeria’s telecommunications and digital finance sectors are still waiting on an answer to a basic question: who regulates the country’s digital credit market, and can two agencies keep disagreeing about it without consequence?
Capital inflows into Nigeria’s telecoms sector slowed in the first quarter of 2026, and telecoms investment advisers have cited the standoff between the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the telecom industry over airtime credit as a contributing factor in the slowdown. For investors, the timeline matters more than the outcome.
The dispute began in April, when major operators suspended airtime and data-credit products, services that let an estimated 40 million subscribers borrow a few hundred naira in airtime against their next recharge, after the FCCPC demanded compliance with its Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-traditional Consumer Lending Regulations.
The rules were designed to regulate predatory digital loan apps but were extended to cover telecom-based credit, prompting the Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria to challenge the FCCPC’s authority in court.
An interim injunction paused enforcement, and services were gradually restored as the FCCPC stood down pending litigation. On July 20, the Federal High Court in Lagos delivered its judgment, upholding the DEON Regulations but finding that the FCCPC has no power to issue telecommunications licences, a role the court said belongs solely to the Nigerian Communications Commission. Justice A. L. Allagoa summarised the principle in a single line: ‘concurrency means coexistence, not displacement.’
