The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has initiated the development of a licensing framework for Application-to-Person (A2P) services in Nigeria, exercising its regulatory authority under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.
The draft framework, aimed at regulating A2P messaging—a format used for bulk SMS notifications from businesses to consumers—has met resistance from industry stakeholders. Critics argue that no other regulator globally has introduced a centralized platform in the international A2P SMS ecosystem. Instead, they advocate for extensive consultations to improve visibility in the sector without the proposed central hub or third-party intervention.
At a stakeholder meeting, industry representatives raised concerns about regulatory oversight, particularly the introduction of levies on international A2P SMS traffic. They argued that the telecom sector is already burdened with multiple taxation layers and urged the NCC to allow market forces to determine pricing. If standardization is necessary, they suggested benchmarking tariffs in U.S. dollars for stability.
Some stakeholders recommended that only licensed International SMS Aggregators be permitted to handle international A2P services and that mobile network operators (MNOs) should only process messages received from these licensed entities. Violations, they insisted, should attract fines.
Additionally, there were calls for ethical obligations to protect the Nigerian market from being dominated by foreign application providers like Meta and Google. Stakeholders highlighted the current state of international A2P messaging, where foreign entities collect payments in foreign currencies without taxation or regulatory oversight, potentially fostering cartels and limiting competition.
Data privacy and security concerns were also raised over routing A2P SMS through a centralized platform. Stakeholders warned that entrusting sensitive transactional data to third-party aggregators could lead to security breaches, disrupt service delivery, and damage consumer trust in MNOs.
In response, Dr. Mohammed Suleh-Yusuf, Acting Head of Telecoms Laws & Regulations at NCC, assured that all concerns would be reviewed and integrated to ensure a balanced and beneficial regulatory framework for the industry.
