The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has directed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to deregulate the country’s airtime credit lending market.
According to reports, a South African technology firm, Optasia, formerly known as Channel VAS, has dominated Nigeria’s airtime credit and data advance market for 12 years and remitted about N3 trillion annually in profits to South Africa while paying little local tax.
The FCCPC argued that the current market structure had “stifled competition, limited local participation, and enabled significant profit repatriation outside the country.”
The Commission stated that opening the market would promote local content, strengthen the digital economy while creating jobs for Nigerians and curb capital flight to South Africa.
Airtime credit lending is a service used by millions of mobile phone users in Nigeria to borrow airtime or data, which would be repaid usually within days.
More details later.
