Ahead of a crucial court ruling that could transform Nigeria’s airtime credit market, the telecommunications industry is urging the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to release an economic impact assessment.
On 20 July, the Federal High Court is due to issue its judgment in a case challenging the FCCPC’s bid to extend its Digital, Electronic, Online and Non-Traditional Consumer Lending (DEON) rules to cover airtime and data credit services.
Stakeholders in the industry maintain that the FCCPC did not carry out a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) prior to rolling out regulations that categorise airtime credit as a type of consumer lending.
According to guidelines issued by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), federal agencies are required to evaluate the economic effects of major regulatory changes before putting them into effect.
The dispute arises from the FCCPC’s attempt to place telecommunications value-added services within a regulatory structure initially created to oversee digital lending activities.
Telecommunications companies and service providers insist that airtime credit is a telecoms-based service that is already regulated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Speaking anonymously due to the ongoing legal proceedings, a senior official of the Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPA) said industry stakeholders are still concerned about the economic assumptions behind the proposed rules.
The official said, “The public narrative has relied on inflated aggregates that distort domestic reality,” adding that regulators ought to make public the analysis that informed the regulatory intervention.
The court case comes after several months of friction between the FCCPC and telecom industry stakeholders. In May, the Commission halted enforcement of the DEON framework following injunctions issued by the Federal High Court in the matter.
Industry leaders say the lack of clarity around how airtime credit services are regulated may affect a product relied on by millions of Nigerians, who often use small airtime and data advances ahead of their next recharge.
The disagreement has further raised wider concerns about how regulatory bodies coordinate within Nigeria’s digital economy.
Telecom operators argue that airtime credit should remain classified as a standard telecommunications service under existing regulations, while the FCCPC considers it to be akin to a consumer lending product.
Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, has previously warned that overlapping regulatory actions could impact perceptions of Nigeria’s investment climate.
Some analysts believe the decision could reach beyond the telecoms sector, potentially acting as a key test case for Nigeria’s approach to managing overlapping regulation in its rapidly converging digital economy.
