The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced a new regulatory framework that will require banks, fintechs, airlines, hospitals, political campaigners, and other businesses to pay N10 million for an Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging license.
According to Nairametrics, this significant move aims to clean up Nigeria’s rapidly growing automated messaging space and curb revenue leakages within the telecom sector.
The new framework introduces a mandatory licensing regime for all entities involved in delivering bulk messages directly from applications to consumers. This includes everything from bank alerts and promotional SMS to other automated notifications. Under the new rules, any organization wishing to operate in Nigeria’s A2P messaging space must secure a five-year license from the NCC.
A2P messaging is a crucial tool for a wide array of businesses, enabling them to send timely and automated information to users. However, the lack of formal regulation in this sector has led to a surge in spam messages, increased security vulnerabilities, and significant revenue losses for the government due to untracked international traffic.
“It has been observed that the excessive use of the Short Message Service has led to fraud, spam and illegal activities. The problem is likely to worsen as mobile connectivity and digital services continue to grow exponentially,” the NCC stated.
Beyond the N10 million licensing fee, the framework outlines several key obligations for A2P providers:
- Licensees must adhere to strict data protection and encryption standards.
- Providers are required to submit regular reports to the NCC, detailing traffic volumes and pricing data.
- Licensees must interconnect with other licensed operators and are prohibited from blocking or discriminating against them.
- The use of unofficial or unauthorized channels for SMS delivery is strictly forbidden.
- Only companies with a proven track record of ethical and secure operations will be considered for licensing.
This framework also supports Nigeria’s broader goals of digital sovereignty and cybersecurity by ensuring that sensitive communication data is not routed through unsafe or unmonitored international paths.