Court Holds FCCPC Cannot Issue Licences While Affirming Its Authority Over Airtime Lending

The Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday affirmed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission’s authority to regulate airtime and data credit services, but held that the Commission’s powers operate alongside those of the Nigerian Communications Commission, not in place of them.

Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa, delivering judgment in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/760/2026, held that the DEON Consumer Lending Regulations 2025 are within the FCCPC’s statutory and constitutional powers. In the same ruling, the judge established that the relationship between the FCCPC and sector-specific regulators is complementary, holding that “concurrency means coexistence, not displacement.”

The court affirmed the FCCPC’s precedence in competition and consumer protection matters under Sections 104 and 105 of the FCCPA 2018, while explicitly preserving the NCC’s technical, licensing, and prudential responsibilities under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.

The court also held that the FCCPC lacks the power to issue licences and that nothing in the DEON Regulations creates a telecommunications licensing regime. The NCC remains the sole authority responsible for licensing companies in the telecommunications sector.

The finding carries immediate practical significance: in April 2026, the FCCPC approved five companies to operate as airtime and data credit providers under the DEON framework. The court’s ruling raises a direct question about the regulatory basis on which those approvals were granted.

The finding is the first judicial pronouncement on how oversight of airtime and data credit services sits between the two regulators, in a market estimated at between N300 billion and N400 billion annually and used by approximately 40 million Nigerians daily.

Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, welcomed the clarity the judgment provides.

“The court has done something important,” Adebayo said. “It has confirmed the FCCPC’s authority and, in the same breath, affirmed that the NCC’s role is preserved. Concurrency means coexistence. The industry now expects both regulators to establish the coordination framework that the court’s reasoning requires.”

Adebayo called on the FCCPC and the NCC to engage the industry in formal consultation before enforcement action is taken, noting that airtime credit services were suspended for three months earlier this year following an enforcement directive and were restored only recently.

“Forty million Nigerians depend on these services,” he said. “The court has made clear that both regulators have a role. The industry is asking them to define how that works before any action that could disrupt access again.”

Adebayo also noted that the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council directive of 6 April 2026, which requires all federal agencies to conduct a Regulatory Impact Assessment before significant regulatory changes, remains in effect.

The judgment is expected to set a precedent for how sector-specific regulators and the FCCPC share oversight as digital products increasingly cross traditional regulatory boundaries.