Courts order MTN, Airtel to resume airtime lending services consumers
MTN
BY PETER FOWOYO
Two divisions of the Federal High Court have, in a decisive legal development that signals a turning point in Nigeria’s most consequential telecoms regulatory dispute in recent memory, issued interim injunctions that effectively restore airtime credit services and restrain the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) from enforcing the regulations at the heart of the crisis.
The twin rulings, delivered by the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos and Abuja respectively, delivered an immediate and significant victory for licensed Value Added Service providers, millions of everyday Nigerians who depend on airtime credit as a daily financial tool, and for the principle that court orders must be respected regardless of who they inconvenience.
In the Lagos division, the Federal High Court presided over by Hon. Justice A. Lewis-Allagoa granted four orders of interim injunction on 15th April 2026 in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/760/2026, brought by the Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPA) against the FCCPC.
The court restrained the FCCPC, its officers, employees, and agents from enforcing or implementing the Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations 2025, widely referred to as the DEON Regulations, including specific provisions under paragraphs 3, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 24, 27, 29 and 32 of the said regulations.
The court additionally restrained the FCCPC from interfering with WASPA members’ continued provision of services, imposing sanctions or fines on those members for non-compliance with the DEON Regulations, or issuing any further orders or directives in connection with the enforcement of the regulations. The matter was adjourned to 27th April 2026 for hearing.
In Abuja, the Federal High Court in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/779/2026 granted an enrolled order dated 24th April 2026 on an ex parte motion filed by Nairtime Holdings Limited and Nairtime Nigeria Limited against MTN Nigeria Communications PLC and Airtel Networks Limited.
The court restrained both MTN and Airtel, their officers, servants, agents and privies, from suspending, restricting, discontinuing, or otherwise interfering with Nairtime Nigeria Limited’s access to their platforms, channels, short codes, SMS, USSD, billing services and other telecommunications-enabled services, during the subsistence of Nairtime’s valid licence issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission under the Nigerian Communications Act, on the basis of the DEON Regulations issued by the FCCPC.
The Abuja suit had been brought on the grounds that MTN and Airtel threatened to suspend or restrict Nairtime’s access to their platforms pursuant to a directive from the FCCPC arising from the DEON Regulations, notwithstanding that Nairtime held valid NCC licences, was in full compliance with its contractual obligations to the telcos, and that no breach had been established nor the contractually required notices issued. The court found sufficient grounds to grant the interim relief pending the hearing and final determination of the substantive suit.
Together, the two rulings place the DEON Regulations and their enforcement in a legal holding pattern. The FCCPC is restrained from acting against VAS providers and their members on their own behalf. MTN and Airtel are restrained from using those regulations as a basis to disrupt licensed operators’ access to their networks. For now, the market has a judicial framework within which it can continue to function.
The DEON Regulations, introduced by the FCCPC via Government Notice No. 3 dated 24th July 2025, sought to extend regulatory oversight over all forms of unsecured digital lending, including airtime and data credit.
Industry stakeholders, led by ALTON, had argued from the outset that the regulations encroached on the NCC’s statutory mandate, created multiple and conflicting compliance obligations for operators, and contradicted the terms of an existing Memorandum of Understanding between the FCCPC and the NCC. ALTON had formally communicated those concerns to the NCC as far back as August 2025, warning that the unresolved jurisdictional overlap would produce precisely the kind of market disruption that subsequently unfolded.
