Meta’s Nigerian future in doubt after $280m fines

Last year the Nigerian authorities moved to impose sweeping fines on the US tech giant Meta, parent company of Facebook, for a range of alleged offences which were this month upheld in the country’s High Court. With Meta now threatening to close down operations in the West African country – potentially cutting off tens of millions of Nigerians from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – the case raises important questions as to how African countries can uphold regulatory standards without driving out the world’s largest and most significant tech firms.

In 2023 Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) imposed a $220m fine on Meta for alleged anti-competitive practices, while the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) imposed a further fine of $37.5m over unapproved advertising.

This was then compounded with the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) bringing a case against Meta for violating data privacy laws and levying a $32.8m fine.

The NDPC argued that Meta must seek explicit user approval before transferring the personal data of their users outside of Nigeria, reflecting a common concern of African nations about the undermining of “data sovereignty” – whereby Africans’ data is moved overseas for commercial benefit, but out of the purview of African regulators.

The chief executive officer of the FCCPC, Adamu Abdullahi, has said that Meta has engaged in “invasive practices against data subjects in Nigeria” and demanded that they “comply with the prevailing law and cease the exploitation of Nigerian consumers and their market abuse.”

Meta has argued that the conditions demanded by regulators are “unrealistic” and has suggested the authorities are “misinterpreting” the laws. The firm appealed against these fines, but the High Court this month upheld the regulators’ cases and ordered Meta to pay the fines by the end of June.

Rotimi Ogunyemi, technology attorney and partner at BOC Legal in Lagos, tells African Business that the regulators’ criticisms of Meta’s practices are “substantively fair.”

“Meta’s uneven privacy practices across regions – such as offering stronger compliance in the European Union but having looser standards in Nigeria – validate the FCCPC and NDPC’s findings,” he says.

“However, the approach – heavy fines and unusually strict remedial orders – may be seen as over-corrective, given the country’s still-developing regulatory maturity,” Ogunyemi adds.

“The enforcement has, though, pushed a necessary conversation around digital sovereignty and equal rights for Nigerian users, which makes the case symbolically important.”

Meta’s exit threat raises alarm

Regardless of the rights or wrongs and the legal wrangling, Meta’s threat to withdraw from the market – something the regulators have condemned as “a calculated move aimed at inducing negative public reaction” to their decision – has raised concerns in some quarters.

“The applicant may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures,” the company reportedly said in court papers.

After all, over 51m people in Nigeria use Facebook alone – a number that represents more than 20% of the entire population. There are over 12m Instagram users in the country, while there are over 50m WhatsApp accounts in Nigeria.

Around 75% of the Nigerian population is under the age of 24, with this young demographic particularly keen to make use of social media for communication and, increasingly, business purposes.

Indeed, the proportion of Nigerian internet users leveraging social media for work-related purposes surged from 39.1% in 2024 to 65.2% in 2025. This is partly because of the growth of the continent’s multi-billion dollar “creative economy” which has seen young Africans seek livelihoods by producing content on social media platforms.

Macroeconomic challenges – such as elevated unemployment rates and persistently high inflation – have also incentivised young Nigerians to make money trading goods and services through the online economy. Ogunyemi says “the exit of Meta platforms would be disruptive for SMEs [small and medium enterprises], digital marketers, and informal businesses that rely on them for outreach and sales. It would also dampen investor confidence in Nigeria’s tech space, raising concerns about regulatory unpredictability.”

However, he also notes that this is “unlikely in the near term…. Meta’s threat to withdraw Facebook and Instagram appears more like tactical pressure than a strategic decision. Nigeria is its largest African market, Ogunyemi tells African Business.

“While Meta finds the current regulatory demands onerous, particularly around data localisation and approvals, the potential loss of market share, user data, and strategic positioning makes a full exit improbable unless enforcement escalates drastically, and negotiations completely collapse.”

Here to stay?

It is also unclear to what extent Meta, or indeed the Nigerian authorities, could enforce such a move. Virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow users to mask their IP addresses and thereby access websites which are supposed to be banned or unavailable, are easy to use and are readily available.

When Twitter (now X) was suspended in Nigeria between June 2021 and January 2022, after the platform deleted controversial tweets by then-president Muhammadu Buhari, ExpressVPN, one of the world’s largest VPN providers, reported an immediate 250% surge in Nigerian traffic

The Meta case is politically sensitive for the Nigerian government and potentially has continent-wide ramifications. It is clear that African governments are keen to assert authority over enormous technology companies which, while primarily based in the US, nonetheless operate within Africa’s jurisdictions and profit from its citizens.

Tech giants look to Trump

However, that is perhaps easier said than done. For one thing, the majority of African countries have smaller annual GDPs than the $134.3bn profit Meta reported in 2024, while the Trump administration is unlikely to look favourably on attempts to restrict the activities of major US companies such as Meta.

Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year that “we’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies.”

In February, the White House issued a memorandum directing US agencies to develop tariffs and “other responsive actions” to retaliate against “regulations imposed on United States companies by foreign governments that could inhibit the growth or intended operation of United States companies.”

Compromise possible

What can Nigeria and other African governments do in light of these conditions? Ogunyemi suggests that rather than “depending heavily on enforcement,” Nigeria should consider moving towards “more incentive-based strategies such as public-private digital compacts.” The idea is to move to a more pragmatic approach that would recognise the power and economic significance of platforms such as Meta, helping the government to develop a less confrontational relationship that would nevertheless see regulatory standards consistently upheld.

“For instance, platforms like Meta might pledge to adhere to regulatory principles, invest in digital literacy programmes, and respect content moderation practices in line with Nigerian law,” he explains. “In return, regulators could pledge to support innovation, provide clear guidelines, and consider industry input in rulemaking.”

“Other approaches include negotiated compliance frameworks and tiered and proportionate enforcement. Rather than only ex-post [after-the-fact] punishment, Nigeria could use negotiated agreements to secure compliance,” Ogunyemi says. “Such tools would allow enforcement to coexist with innovation, reducing the risk of stifling tech development while still upholding consumer protection and privacy.”

“The key is for Nigeria to avoid scorched-earth enforcement,” Ogunyemi says, “and instead create a regulatory climate that encourages reform without risking digital exclusion.”