If you lost access to airtime borrowing on MTN or Airtel over the past weeks and it affected you, there is a new update concerning the situation, two federal courts have just ordered that it come back.

Although the regulation that caused the suspension in the first place is still very much alive and the fight over it is only getting more complicated.

Two divisions of the Federal High Court, one in Lagos, one in Abuja, have issued interim injunctions restoring airtime lending services and restraining the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) from enforcing the Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations, 2025, known as DEON.

These rulings will definitely provide immediate relief to millions of Nigerians who depend on these services, but they are interim orders, not final judgements.

The bigger question of who actually has regulatory authority over digital lending in the telecommunications sector remains unresolved and is now headed for full court hearings.

How the Services Were Suspended and Why It Became a Legal Battle

The Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations, 2025, known as DEON, was introduced by the FCCPC in July 2025 to regulate Nigeria's digital lending sector, a space that had accumulated years of legitimate grievances.

Loan apps had accessed borrowers' contact lists without consent and sent repayment threats to family members and colleagues. Interest terms were buried and in some cases, debt recovery crossed into harassment consistently, and enforcement action had to be taken against multiple lenders before the regulation was formalised.

The problem was the reach of the regulation. DEON classified telecom operators offering airtime credit, services like MTN's Xtratime and Airtel's Borrow Me Credit, in the same compliance category as loan apps and digital lenders.

That meant telecoms now had to obtain licences, restructure how credit services operated, and meet the same standards as fintech lenders. MTN suspended XtraTime shortly after and Airtel followed.

Industry pushback was not new. The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) had raised concerns with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) as far back as August 2025, warning that DEON created overlapping compliance obligations, encroached on the NCC's statutory mandate, and conflicted with an existing memorandum of understanding between the two regulators.

Those warnings were not resolved and the services were suspended anyway. In the course of the whole events unfolding the litigation that followed validated exactly what the industry had flagged months earlier.

What the Two Court Orders Actually Say

The Lagos ruling came first, on April 15, 2026, the Federal High Court in Lagos granted four interim injunctions in a suit filed by the Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPA) against the FCCPC.

The court restrained the commission, its officers, and agents from enforcing DEON's provisions, including imposing sanctions or fines for alleged non-compliance, or issuing directives connected to the regulation's enforcement. The matter was adjourned to April 27, 2026 for further hearing.

The Abuja ruling followed on April 24, 2026. The Federal High Court there granted an interim order in a suit filed by Nairtime Holdings Limited and Nairtime Nigeria Limited against MTN Nigeria and Airtel Networks Limited.

The court restrained both telecom operators from suspending, restricting, or interfering with Nairtime's access to their platforms, including short codes, SMS, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), and billing services.

The order applies for the duration of Nairtime's valid licence issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and prevents the operators from using DEON as justification for any disruption.

Together, the two rulings place DEON's enforcement on hold. The FCCPC cannot act against Value Added Service (VAS) providers. Telecom operators cannot use the regulation to deny licensed operators access to their networks. Services that were suspended can resume, at least for now.

What This Means for Subscribers and What Still Needs to Be Settled

For subscribers, the immediate practical reality is that airtime and data borrowing services are returning. The court orders will restore access to services that millions of Nigerians rely on, particularly those on pay-as-you-go mobile plans where airtime credit functions as a basic financial buffer.

MTN's Xtratime, Airtel's equivalent service, and the VAS providers caught in the dispute all benefit from the interim protection the rulings provide.

What has not been settled is the underlying jurisdictional question, whether the FCCPC has the authority to regulate digital lending within the telecommunications sector, or whether that authority belongs exclusively to the NCC.

That question is now before the courts in both Lagos and Abuja, and the substantive hearings will determine the legality and scope of DEON's reach over telecom-based credit services.

Until those rulings come, the current arrangement, services restored, enforcement paused, is a legal holding pattern, not a resolution, because the regulation that triggered the suspension is still on the books, still contested, and still unresolved.