Airtel Nigeria has restored its airtime credit services to more than 63 million subscribers, thereby becoming the first major telecom operator to relaunch the offering following a six-week suspension that temporarily cut off a widely used borrowing feature across the country’s mobile networks.
Globacom has also resumed its credit services, while MTN Nigeria, operator of the country’s largest subscriber base of over 95 million users is yet to announce a timeline for the return of its XtraTime and XtraData services.
The services were suspended in April 2026 after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) introduced enforcement measures under its DEON Consumer Lending Regulations.
The framework reclassified airtime credit as a form of consumer lending, requiring operators to meet new licensing and compliance standards. In response, all four major mobile networks halted their airtime advance offerings.
Before the suspension, airtime credit had become a critical stopgap service for an
This post was originally published on this site.
