Airtel, Globacom Resume Airtime Lending After Court Blocks FCCPC Rules

Airtel and Globacom have resumed airtime lending services in Nigeria following a court order that halted the enforcement of new digital lending regulations. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) suspended enforcement of its 2025 DEON Regulations on May 22, following an interim order from the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The dispute centered on whether telecom airtime and data credit should be classified as digital loans. The FCCPC had broadened the scope of its Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations (DEON Regulations) 2025 to include these services. This classification would have required telecom operators to comply with the same registration, disclosure, and consumer protection obligations as traditional lenders.

The legal challenge, filed by the Wireless Application Services Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPAN), argued that airtime credit is a telecom value-added service already regulated under the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) framework and should not be treated as a conventional loan. An interim order issued by Justice A.L. Allagoa on April 15 restrained the FCCPC from implementing these rules.

This regulatory friction caused a significant market disruption. To avoid potential sanctions under the FCCPC framework, operators including MTN, Airtel, and Globacom suspended airtime credit services in April. The resumption of services like Globacom’s “Borrow Me Credit” and Airtel’s airtime advances restores access for millions of subscribers who rely on these features for emergency communication.

The resumption of these services signals a temporary victory for the telecom ecosystem against regulatory overreach. While the services are already active on Airtel and Glo, the industry remains in a state of transition. WASPAN chairman Ayo Stuffman noted confidence in the eventual resumption of services on MTN following these developments.

The core tension remains: how much authority should a consumer protection regulator have to reclassify existing utility-based telecom services as financial products? The outcome of this regulatory clash will define the boundaries between telecommunications and digital finance in Nigeria.

Monitor the next steps in the litigation between WASPAN and the FCCPC to see if the 2025 regulations are permanently rescinded or merely paused.