By Ghazali Ibrahim
A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered telecommunications giants MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria to reverse the suspension of their airtime and data lending services, offering relief to millions of subscribers affected by the disruption.
The court, in an interim ruling delivered last week, directed the operators to immediately restore access to infrastructure supporting services such as Xtratime and XtraByte, which allow users to borrow airtime and data.
The decision followed a suit filed by Nairtime Holdings Limited and Nairtime Nigeria Limited, which challenged the suspension of the services and argued that it violated existing contractual agreements and operational licences.
In its ruling, the court held that the disruption of the services amounted to unlawful interference with licensed value-added service providers and ordered that the status quo be maintained pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The development comes amid a broader regulatory tussle involving the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), whose Digital, Electronic, Online and Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations had prompted telecom operators to suspend airtime and data credit services in the first place.
Earlier in April, both MTN and Airtel announced the temporary suspension of the services to comply with the new regulatory framework governing digital lending in Nigeria.
However, the court also restrained regulators from enforcing aspects of the new rules that could disrupt the operations of licensed service providers, effectively putting the controversial regulations on hold for now.
The ruling is widely seen as a major relief for subscribers and small businesses that rely on airtime and data advances for daily communication and operations.
As of the time of filing this report, attention has shifted to the telecom operators and regulators to comply fully with the court order, even as the case has been adjourned for further hearing.
