Airtime credit regulation: Telcos demand clear framework from FCCPC and NCC after court ruling

Airtime and data credit services could face fresh uncertainty unless Nigeria’s two key regulators agree on how to oversee them, according to telecommunications operators, who warn that poor coordination could affect more than 40 million users.

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) made the call on Monday through its chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, in response to a Federal High Court judgment confirming that both the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have legitimate authority over airtime and data credit services.

Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa, delivering judgment in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/760/2026, ruled that the two regulators operate alongside each other rather than in competition. The FCCPC retains its powers under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, while the NCC keeps its exclusive responsibility for telecommunications licensing and technical regulation under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003. In the court’s own words: “Concurrency means coexistence, not displacement.”

Adebayo welcomed the ruling but said the judgment creates an obligation that has not yet been met. “The court has confirmed the FCCPC’s authority and, in the same breath, affirmed that the NCC’s role is preserved,” he said. “The industry now expects both regulators to establish the coordination framework that the court’s reasoning requires.”

Why telcos want the FCCPC and NCC to coordinate on airtime credit rules

To understand why telcos are pushing so hard for a clear framework, it helps to know what happened earlier this year.

Airtime credit, the service that lets you borrow airtime or data from your network when your balance runs out, repaying it when you next recharge, was suspended for three months following an enforcement directive. Millions of Nigerians who relied on that service to make calls, access the internet, or run their small businesses suddenly lost access to it.

The service was eventually restored, but the disruption illustrated exactly what happens when regulatory action is taken without a clear process that the industry can anticipate and prepare for.

Think of it this way. If you are a roadside trader who depends on borrowing ₦200 of data to process mobile payments until your next sale comes in, three months without that service is not an inconvenience; it is a direct hit to your income. Forty million Nigerians use these services. The stakes of getting the regulatory framework wrong are not abstract.

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Adebayo’s ask is specific. He is calling on the FCCPC and the NCC to engage industry stakeholders through formal consultations before any enforcement actions are taken going forward. He also pointed to the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council’s directive of April 6, 2026, which requires all federal agencies to conduct a Regulatory Impact Assessment before introducing significant regulatory changes, a requirement that remains in force and that both agencies are bound by.

The court has drawn the map. It has told both regulators that they have authority and that they must coexist. What it has not done is tell them exactly how to do that in practice, which meetings to hold, which agency leads on which decisions, and what happens when they disagree. That is the framework the telcos are asking for, and it is a reasonable ask.

Two regulators acting on the same space without coordinating is not coexistence. It is confusion with extra steps.

Also read: Optasia announces restoration of airtime lending services in Nigeria