Guidelines

Nigeria (NG)

We've compiled regulatory and compliance information to help ensure you're communicating effectively and compliantly around the world.

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Locale Summary
Locale name	Nigeria
ISO code The International Organization for Standardization two character representation for the given locale.	NG
Region	Middle East & Africa
Mobile country code A three digit code associated with the given locale and used in conjunction with a Mobile Network Code to uniquely identify mobile networks.	621
Dialing code The dialing prefix used to establish a call or send an SMS from one locale to the given locale.	+234

Guidelines
Two-way SMS supported Whether Twilio supports two-way SMS in the given locale.	No
Number portability available Whether number portability is available in the given locale.	Yes
Twilio concatenated message support Concatenation refers to the capability of splitting a message that is too long to be sent in one SMS into smaller pieces and then joining the pieces at the receiving end so that the receiver sees the message as one.	Yes* For certain sender ID types this may not be supported. Where messages are split and rejoined may vary based on character encoding.
Message length How many characters can be sent given a particular message encoding before the message will be split into concatenated segments.	160 Characters
Twilio MMS support Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) provides a standards-based means to send pictures and video to mobile phones.	Converted to SMS with embedded URL
Sending SMS to landline numbers How Twilio handles an SMS message destined for landline telephone number.	You cannot send SMS to a landline destination number: the Twilio REST API will throw a 400 response with error code 21614, the message will not appear in the logs, and the account will not be charged.
Compliance considerations Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. This table lists some general best practices.	Sending gambling, adult content, money/loan, political, religious, controlled substance, cannabis, and alcohol related content is strictly prohibited. Dynamic Alphanumeric Sender IDs are supported, although sending with Numeric Sender IDs will be attempted on a best-effort basis. We recommend sending with an Alphanumeric Sender ID specific to your brand and content. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) mandates that local telecom operators maintain a Do-Not-Disturb (DND) registry, allowing mobile subscribers to opt out of promotional and unsolicited SMS broadcasts. While DND is intended specifically to block unsolicited marketing, the technical implementation across Nigerian networks means its impact is not always limited to promotional messages. Due to aggressive telco filtering and route configurations, non-promotional traffic, including notifications and One-Time Passwords (OTPs), may occasionally fail or be blocked if sent to a phone number with DND active. To review the regulatory framework governing the Nigerian DND registry, please refer to the official NCC documentation. Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. The following are some general best practices: Get opt-in consent from each end-user before sending any communication to them, particularly for marketing or other non-essential communications. Only communicate during an end-user’s daytime hours unless it is urgent. SMS campaigns should support HELP/STOP messages, and similar messages, in the end-user’s local language. Do not contact end-users on do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries.

Phone Numbers & Sender ID

Alphanumeric

	International Pre-registration	Domestic Pre-registration	Dynamic
Operator network capability Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.	Required	Supported only for the major Nigerian Networks (MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat).	Not Supported
Twilio supported Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.	Supported Learn more and register via the Console	Supported only for the major Nigerian Networks (MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat) Learn more and register via the Console	Supported
Sender ID preserved In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.	Yes	Yes	No
Provisioning time Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.	3 weeks	2-3 weeks	N/A
UCS-2 support	Supported	Supported	N/A
Use case restrictions	Promotional content is not allowed to be registered.	Twilio supports the registration of the following two categories of Domestic Sender IDs: - Banking - Promotional	Sender ID Registration is Required. Submission with unregistered Sender IDs will be attempted on a best effort basis. Generic Alphanumeric Sender IDs, such as InfoSMS, INFO, Verify and Notify, should be avoided. Google as a Sender ID is prohibited in Nigeria. Messages using this Sender ID may be blocked or filtered by the local operators.
Best practices

Long codes and short codes

	Long code domestic	Long code international	Short code
Operator network capability Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.	Not Supported	Not Supported	Not Supported
Twilio supported Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.	Not Supported	Supported	Not Supported
Sender ID preserved In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.	---	No	---
Provisioning time Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.	N/A	N/A	N/A
UCS-2 support	N/A	Supported	N/A
Use case restrictions	N/A	Numeric International sender ID is not supported to the MTN, Airtel and 9 Mobile networks in Nigeria. Messages submitted with numeric would result in delivery failure. Twilio strongly suggests submitting traffic only with a Pre-Registered alphanumeric sender ID in Nigeria.	N/A
Best practices	N/A	---	N/A

For the benefit of all our customers, these guidelines are provided to help you comply with applicable requirements and to help ensure Twilio's platform remains compliant with global telecommunications ecosystem requirements. These guidelines represent our current understanding of common compliance requirements generally applicable to Twilio and its customers, and do not constitute legal advice. By posting these guidelines, Twilio makes no assurances regarding the legal compliance of your application built using our APIs. You are expected to understand and abide by all compliance obligations applicable to your specific application. You should check these pages regularly for updates as telecommunications ecosystem requirements continue to evolve and change, and the information below may be updated or changed without notice.