The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), in exercise of its powers under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, has commenced the process of developing a framework on licensing Application to Person (A2P) services in Nigeria.

To this end, the NCC has come up with a draft A2P licensing framework for the Nigerian telecoms industry.

The move is however being resisted by some industry stakeholders who are of the view that there is no country where a regulator has proposed such a central platform in the international A2P SMS ecosystem.

The stakeholders therefore advised that the NCC should hold an extensive consultation with the industry to collectively address its concerns with respect to having greater visibility in the international A2P SMS segment in place of the proposed central hub/centralised SMS firewall and introduction of a third party.

The draft A2P licensing framework, which the NCC has developed, provides a regulatory framework for the management of Application-to-Person services.

The A2P messaging is a communication format in the telecommunications sector used to send Short Message Services (SMS) or for sending notifications from an application directly to a recipient?s mobile phone. The A2P is initiated through the internet, but the text messages are transmitted over mobile networks, reaching recipients via their cellular connection. This form of messaging is predominantly used by businesses and organisations to deliver bulk promotional or transactional messages, such as marketing campaigns, appointment reminders, announcements, product advertisements, and order status updates.

At a stakeholders? meeting, where NCC presented the draft A2P licensing framework, industry stakeholders raised some concerns, which the NCC promised to look into.

Among the several concerns raised by the stakeholders, they specifically noted that one of the reasons for the proposed regulatory oversights is to levy A2P SMS traffic appropriately. They however reminded the NCC that the industry was already overburdened with incidences of multiple taxation and levies payable to different tiers of government, and kicked against the introduction of any levy on international A2P SMS. According to the stakeholders, they will prefer a situation where market forces are allowed to determine the international A2P SMS tariff. They however said should the rates be standardized, the NCC should adopt benchmarking for the exercise, and the rates should be denominated in dollar, which according to them, is relatively stable and acceptable internationally.

Some of the stakeholders, who called for the review of the draft A2P licensing framework, said explicit language should be inserted as a subsection stating that: ?Only licensed International SMS Aggregators shall be permitted to carry out international A2P aggregation services within Nigeria.? And that ?Every local mobile network operator in Nigeria (MNO) may terminate only those international A2P SMS messages that have been received from a licensee, insisting that any violation of these provisions shall be subject to applicable fines.

The stakeholders also recommended inserting some ethical obligations into the framework such as ?the A2P Aggregator at all times acts in the interest of the Nigerian market not the international application providers like Meta and Google,? ensuring the Nigerian market is not oversubscribed.

Giving the current state of the International A2P Messaging in Nigeria, the stakeholders however said: ?International A2P traffic is currently collected by entities outside Nigeria. Payments are made in foreign currencies, which do not flow into the country nor are the companies taxed. There is no specific regulation on A2P SMS leading to a lack of visibility in the SMS market, potential formation of cartels and reduced competition.?

Other stakeholders, while making general statements, said: ?Routing A2P SMS traffic through a centralized platform raises significant data privacy and security concerns, particularly if sensitive transactional and notification data are managed by third-party aggregators. Any compromise, breach or failure within the central hub could expose subscriber information, disrupt service delivery and adversely affect the reputation and trust MNOs have built with their customers.?

Responding to stakeholders? reactions, Acting Head, Telecoms Laws & Regulations Unit at NCC, Dr. Mohammed Suleh-Yusuf, stated that all the issues raised would be considered and consolidated to benefit the telecommunications Industry. (THISDAY)

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