President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to dismantle the 12-year monopoly held by South African firm Optasia in Nigeria’s airtime credit and data advance services market.
The move, following a high-level briefing by the FCCPC, aims to open up an estimated N3 trillion annual market to local fintech companies and curb capital flight.
An FCCPC official familiar with the briefing said the President was convinced by arguments highlighting Optasia’s limited contribution to the local economy.
“The Commission’s argument is that deregulating the sector will promote competition, the Nigeria First Technology Policy, employment for Nigerians and discourage capital flight to South Africa as hitherto perpetrated by Optasia,” the official told Vanguard on condition of anonymity.
Optasia, formerly known as Channel VAS, has been accused of operating without a significant local presence, employing no Nigerian staff and failing to share credit data with local bureaus.
FCCPC acting executive vice chairman Adamu Abdullahi had earlier warned that “no single company, regardless of origin, will be allowed to hold an entire digital subsector hostage through exclusive contracts that do not serve Nigerian consumers.”
A senior fintech executive described the directive as “a watershed moment,” adding: “For 12 years, one foreign firm has extracted value from Nigerian consumers with almost no local reinvestment. That model is now ending.”
Nine Nigerian companies are expected to be onboarded as part of the liberalisation, with implementation guidelines to be published within 60 days. Optasia has reportedly filed for a court injunction to challenge the move.
