A Federal High Court has ordered telecom giants MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria to immediately restore their popular airtime and data borrowing services.
The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, directed the telecom operators to immediately restore the popular “borrow credit” and “borrow data” services, which had been suspended earlier this month.
For many Nigerians, particularly those in low-income brackets who depend on emergency airtime credit to make urgent calls or access data, the ruling could not have come soon enough.
Justice Ibrahim Musa, who delivered the judgment, held that the suspension of the services without proper regulatory backing was unfair to consumers who rely on the feature for emergency communication and that telecom providers must operate within the framework of consumer protection laws and ensure that subscribers are not subjected to abrupt service withdrawals.
The crisis traces its roots to a regulatory earthquake that rattled Nigeria’s telecom sector earlier this month. MTN Nigeria suspended its airtime borrowing service known as XtraTime, which allows users to borrow airtime when their balance is insufficient through a USSD code system commonly accessed via *303#.
In a corporate filing to the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the telecom giant said its decision was due to new regulatory requirements governing digital lending in Nigeria, specifically, the Digital, Electronic, Online, or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations, 2025, introduced by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).
Globacom and 9mobile (now T2) also stopped offering the service, making it a decision followed by all major telecom operators. Almost overnight, the familiar *303# shortcode that millions of Nigerians had relied upon for years went silent.
Behind the suspension lies a bitter dispute between Nigeria’s telecoms industry and the FCCPC over jurisdiction and compliance. The FCCPC’s DEON Consumer Lending Regulations, introduced in July 2025, were designed to address rising consumer complaints in the digital lending and value-added services ecosystem.
Operators were initially given a 90-day compliance window starting in July 2025 to regularize their operations, which was later extended to January 5, 2026, due to slow compliance, particularly in the telecom segment.
The FCCPC’s findings indicated that some operators engaged in exclusionary third-party technical arrangements in clear disobedience to the provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018, arrangements allegedly designed to lock out local and competing participants from the market.
The telcos, however, have pushed back. One unnamed telecom official described the situation bluntly: “Telcos are enablers of other sectors, and we are fully regulated by the Nigerian Communications Commission. Subjecting us to all forms of compliance from different regulators is a distraction.”
Complicating matters further, a separate but related legal battle has emerged involving Nairtime Nigeria Ltd, the technology company that powers the credit infrastructure behind the services.
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja described the suspension of access to Nairtime as an “unlawful interference” with its valid operational licence issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission and granted a perpetual injunction restraining the telecommunications firms from further disrupting the service.
Yet even that ruling has not moved the needle. Industry watchers have expressed concern over what they describe as a dangerous precedent for the rule of law in Nigeria, with anonymous sources warning: “When a court of competent jurisdiction issues a perpetual injunction, it is not a suggestion; it is a command.
For corporate entities to choose which judgments to obey and which to ignore is an invitation to anarchy and a direct hit on the investment climate.”
The financial dimensions of this dispute are staggering. Nigeria’s three largest telecom operators, MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, stand to lose more than ₦300 billion in annual revenue after the FCCPC approved five independent firms to take over the airtime and data lending market, effectively shutting the operators out of a business they have dominated for years.
The five FCCPC-approved replacements are Total Tim Nigeria Limited, Rane Interactive Medien CLS Limited, Mode NG Applications Limited, Cloud Interactive Associate Limited, and Coverage Broadband Limited.
While the legal and regulatory machinery grinds on, it is everyday subscribers who have suffered most. The XtraTime and XtraByte services are essential tools for Nigeria’s informal economy, allowing small business owners and individuals to stay online even when they lack immediate liquidity to purchase airtime or data vouchers.
Nigeria’s mobile sector now serves an estimated 185 million active subscriptions as of February 2026, with MTN Nigeria leading at 95.3 million subscribers, followed by Airtel Nigeria at 63.02 million. For a significant portion of those users, especially those outside major urban centers, airtime borrowing is not a luxury, it is a lifeline.
One subscriber, Chinedu Okeke, captured the mood of many Nigerians when he said, “This is a welcome development. Many of us depend on borrowed airtime, especially during emergencies. The suspension affected communication badly.”
Despite the court’s directive, the path to restoration remains uncertain. Both MTN and Airtel are yet to issue official statements on when the full implementation of the court order will take effect.
Given that the telcos have reportedly defied earlier related rulings, consumer rights advocates and legal observers are watching closely to see whether this latest judgment will prove more enforceable or whether Nigeria’s telecom giants will once again choose compliance on their own timeline.
What is clear is that the standoff between Nigeria’s regulatory bodies, its telecom giants, and the courts is far from over. For millions of Nigerians, however, today’s ruling is at least a signal that the system is capable of pushing back, even if the battle for full restoration of services is still being fought.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Nigeria’s airtime borrowing crisis boils down to one central truth: a regulatory dispute between the FCCPC and major telecoms has come at the direct expense of millions of ordinary Nigerians.
While MTN and Airtel hid behind compliance language, the courts have twice ruled against the suspension, yet the services remain down.
Today’s Federal High Court order is a significant legal victory for consumers, but a court ruling means nothing if it goes unenforced. The real test now is not whether justice was declared, but whether it will actually be delivered.
