Nigeria: SIP providers and connecting a number to your PBX

We do not issue phone numbers: the venue buys a Nigerian number from a carrier or a local VoIP provider and connects it to its own PBX as a trunk. Everything that is the same in every country — trunk modes, form fields, network requirements and connectivity checks — is covered in the overview “Connecting a provider's number to your PBX”. This page covers only the Nigerian part: where to get a number, what to enter in the admin panel and what people trip over in this country.

The data was collected on 10 September 2026 from the websites of carriers and resellers, from the guidelines of the regulator NCC and from the national numbering plan; links are in the “Sources” section. A dedicated PBX is created for venues in Nigeria: the regulator does not require the venue itself to hold a licence.

In brief#

• A trunk for your own PBX can be bought in Nigeria, and the regulator's framework explicitly allows it. The NCC guidelines on international gateway access and VoIP state in §6(6) that an organisation may carry voice over IP across its own network, and in §8(4) that an ordinary private company “should subscribe to the services of licensed operators”. The venue is a subscriber here; the licence is held by whoever sells the number.
• No Nigerian seller publishes SIP parameters. The host, port, transport, authorisation mode and codecs are given at provisioning time — this is true of everyone, from MTN down to the resellers. So the first question to a sales manager is not the price but: “do you deliver the trunk over UDP or TCP 5060 with G.711 a-law, without mandatory TLS/SRTP, and what do you put in the called number of an incoming call?”
• There are four candidates. MTN Nigeria is the only carrier in the country with a published tariff for a trunk to a third-party PBX; ipNX offers “Enterprise Telephony” with its own Lagos and Abuja ranges; AstraQom sells a local 201/209 number at a published price from $27 a month; Netcat and MultiPair are Lagos resellers that name Asterisk and FreePBX outright.
• The main arithmetic pitfall is ten digits of the number versus seven in the match. A Nigerian national number is exactly 10 digits, while a line is matched by its last seven, so the city or network code drops out of the match. The Lagos number 0201 2770000 and the Abuja number 0209 2770000 produce the same tail and collapse into one line — and that is not hypothetical: the NCC assigned one operator identical three-digit codes in both cities.
• Spoofing the outbound caller ID is a regulatory risk, not a minor liberty. The NCC prosecutes call masking and refiling directly: in February 2018 it suspended the licences of six interconnect operators and deactivated about a million SIM cards. In the “Display as” field put only numbers covered by your own contract.
• A foreign company will not be sold a local number directly. Mobile SIMs are tied to the NIN of a specific person, and a corporate contract requires CAC registration. The practical route for a non-resident is an international aggregator with a Nigerian DID.

Numbers in Nigeria#

The country code is +234 and the national prefix is a leading 0. The national number (without the zero) is 10 digits for both fixed and mobile: the zone or network code plus subscriber digits. In “Lines” the number is entered in E.164 as +234 201 XXX XXXX.

• Fixed zones (NCC national numbering plan, March 2024): 201 Lagos, 209 Abuja, 202 Ibadan, 2039 Abeokuta, 2052 Benin City, 2053 Warri, 2056 Asaba, 2062 Kaduna, 2064 Kano, 2069 Zaria, 2073 Jos, 2084 Port Harcourt, 2085 Uyo, 2087 Calabar — plus a dozen and a half smaller zones.
• Mobile prefixes by operator (same plan): MTN — 703, 706, 707, 803, 806, 810, 813, 814, 816, 903, 906, 913, 916; Airtel — 701, 708, 802, 808, 812, 901, 902, 904, 907, 911, 912; Glo — 705, 805, 807, 811, 815, 905, 915; 9mobile — 809, 817, 818, 908, 909; separately 801 Mafab, 804 nTel, 710 Telewyz.
• No Nigerian seller has publicly described the form in which the number arrives on an incoming call. Be ready for three variants: E.164 without the plus (2342011234567), national with the zero (02011234567) or the bare national number (2011234567). On the first connection look at the SIP trace to see what the provider sends, and only then create lines.
• Nobody publishes their codecs either. G.711 A-law is what the region normally uses; we support G.711 a-law, G.711 µ-law and G.722 and cannot do G.729 or Opus — ask for the right ones explicitly and in writing.
• Emergency numbers are 112 and 199. Emergency calls are not served through our PBX — an ordinary phone or a mobile must stay on the premises. Indirect confirmation of the practice: DIDWW marks emergency calling for Nigeria as not supported.

Who sells a number with a SIP trunk#

Below are cards for the sellers worth approaching for a trunk to your own PBX, plus a review of the rest. All of them hand over parameters under contract; the full list of questions for a sales manager is in “What to ask your provider”.

MTN Nigeria — MTN SIP Trunking#

The country's largest carrier, and the only one that has published a tariff for a trunk to a third-party PBX. The product is described in plain words as an “access link that connects an enterprise's telephony system to MTN's voice network” and positioned as a PRI replacement without a hard channel limit. What matters to us in the feature list: Direct Inward Dialling, inbound and outbound calling, CLIP/CLIR, “IP PBX compatible” and GSM Number Ranges — meaning the DIDs may be mobile 0803… numbers, not only fixed ones.

The tariff: the Standard plan with 30 concurrent sessions — a one-off installation fee of ₦450,000, a monthly rental of ₦37,625 and 22 kobo per second of conversation (on-net and off-net alike). Extra sessions: 5 — ₦7,095, 10 — ₦13,760, 15 — ₦20,210, 20 — ₦26,338, 25 — ₦32,143 per month. Requests go through letstalk.ng@mtn.com or an MTN Business manager; the contract is a corporate one.

What to enter in the admin panel (Telephony → “Trunks and connections” → “Add a provider”):

What to arrange with the provider: order SIP Trunking and the number of DIDs you need → state the scheme up front — “the PBX is in the cloud, it has its own static IP, deliver the trunk over the public internet” → give the engineer the address from the “Server” tab and ask for it to be added to the allow-list → insist on G.711 a-law/µ-law, UDP or TCP 5060 and RFC 2833 DTMF → point the numbers at the trunk → confirm the format of the number on incoming calls → run “Check connection”.

Pitfalls ⚠️

• The rental is charged per session, not per number. Thirty concurrent sessions are excessive for a restaurant — negotiate the smallest package before signing.
• The trunk is described as an “access link”. That hints at delivery over MTN's own network rather than the internet: make it your first question, otherwise the cloud-PBX scheme will not add up.
• The live product page returned 404 on 10 September 2026, although the “SIP trunking” item is still in the Large Business menu; the tariff above comes from an archived copy. Ask the manager to confirm the figures in writing.
• Do not confuse this with MTN Cameroon. The storefront offering “MTN Sip Trunking” for 100,000 FCFA is Cameroonian and has nothing to do with Nigeria.

Source: MTN SIP Trunking — archived copy of the product page — 10 September 2026.

ipNX Nigeria — Enterprise Telephony#

A fixed-line carrier and internet provider (Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan) with its own numbering resource: Lagos 201-628…638 — eleven ranges — plus Abuja 209-623/624 and Ibadan 202. Their DIDs are their own, not resold.

The service is described as closely as possible to our scenario: “This service is delivered as: SIP Trunk or xE1 PRI Trunks”, separately “Direct-In-Dial SIP lines”, with access “either via the Internet or through organization's VPN”; it says outright that the solution “can be deployed to seamlessly integrate with existing Analogue or IP-based PBXs or soft switches”. Requests go through “Request a Quote” on the site, businesssales@ipnxnigeria.net or +234 (201) 633 6000.

What to enter in the admin panel:

What to arrange with the provider: ask for a SIP Trunk, not a Direct-In-Dial line to their handset → choose delivery over the internet if you are not buying their VPN → hand over the PBX static IP for the allow-list → insist on G.711 and UDP/TCP → confirm the DID format in the incoming INVITE and the concurrent-call limit on the trunk.

Pitfalls ⚠️ ipNX is first and foremost an internet provider: voice is sold together with their own access link, so “a trunk without our internet” either costs more or has to be escalated. Provisioning times and the document list are not published — ask in writing.

Source: ipNX — Enterprise Telephony — 10 September 2026.

AstraQom — a Nigerian number at a published price#

An international provider with a dedicated Nigerian storefront and — a rarity for this country — published prices: STARTER at $27 a month (1 number, 1 line, 100 minutes to Nigerian fixed and mobile numbers), CORPORATE at $55 (1 number, 2 lines, 300 minutes), DELUXE at $83 (1 number, 2 lines, 500 minutes). A one-off setup fee of $15.60, inbound minutes at $0.07, an extra number at $19.50 a month. The numbers are local: Lagos +234 201, Abuja +234 209; activation takes 1–3 business days, and numbers that need local KYC take longer.

Compatibility is stated directly: “We support standard SIP (Asterisk, FreePBX, 3CX, Avaya, Cisco)”, and their engineers help with the setup. No technical parameters appear on the storefront.

What to enter in the admin panel:

What to arrange with the provider: order a Nigerian DID (201 or 209) → size the number of lines by the venue's concurrent calls, not by headcount (one line equals one conversation) → insist on G.711 and UDP/TCP → with IP authorisation, hand over the address from the “Server” tab → confirm the number format on incoming calls.

Pitfalls ⚠️ “1 line” in the tariff means exactly one concurrent call: STARTER will not be enough for a venue that takes two or three calls at once. Porting existing Nigerian numbers “within 2–4 weeks” is promised on the storefront, but there is no regulatory porting procedure for fixed numbers in the country — treat it as a seller's promise and get it confirmed before paying.

Source: AstraQom — SIP Trunks in Nigeria — 10 September 2026.

Netcat Technology Solutions and MultiPair Telecom — local resellers#

Two Lagos sellers that promise a trunk to a third-party PBX outright — faster and cheaper than a corporate contract with a carrier.

• Netcat Technology Solutions (5 Adepele Street, Ikeja; +234 809 148 7643) — “SIP trunk service with quality local and international voice termination” plus licensed DIDs. Compatibility is spelled out as a list: “3CX, Yeastar, Shoretel, FreePBX, Mitel, Asterisk, Elastix, NEC, Panasonic”, plus Grandstream UCM and VitalPBX. For us this is the most direct “yes, we connect to Asterisk” on the market.
• MultiPair Telecom (info@multipairtelecom.com; Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt) — a “SIP trunk for business in Nigeria” with DIDs; the requirement for the customer is stated honestly as “good internet connection and an IP PBX supporting SIP trunking”. They also sell hardware, so a third-party PBX does not bother them.

Neither publishes parameters or prices — everything is issued at activation.

What to enter in the admin panel (the same for both):

What to arrange with the provider: ask for a configuration “as for Asterisk or FreePBX” rather than a 3CX template → order a Nigerian DID and agree the concurrent-call limit → insist on G.711 a-law/µ-law → check whether the trunk is tied to buying their hardware (for MultiPair that is a separate line of business) → ask whose numbering resource it is and whether the holder is licensed by the NCC.

Pitfalls ⚠️ This is a resale chain: the number stays owned by a Nigerian resource holder, and disputes (CLI, disconnection, porting) are settled through an intermediary. ConnectSIP, a third seller of the same kind, has a storefront registered in the USA (Spokane, Washington) despite its Nigerian clientele and WAT business hours — ask whose resource is being sold before you pay.

Sources: Netcat — SIP Trunk service and MultiPair — SIP Trunk in Nigeria — 10 September 2026.

Airtel, Glo, 9mobile and the holders of city codes#

International providers with Nigerian numbers#

• DIDWW is the most predictable route: its coverage map lists local numbers in two Nigerian zones, +234 (201) Lagos and +234 (209) Abuja, both with inbound calls, Local SIP Trunking and A-Z international termination supported. Subscriber registration is mandatory. Not supported: emergency calling, SMS, fax and portability. DIDWW has no Nigerian mobile or toll-free numbers.
• AstraQom — see the card above: local 201/209, published prices, activation in 1–3 days.
• Twilio does carry Nigerian local voice numbers, but mobile numbers are not sold to individuals, and an executed Letter of Authorization plus a regulatory bundle are required. A reminder from the overview: Twilio has no REGISTER mode, only IP or credential-list authorisation.
• Global Call Forwarding, United World Telecom, PBX.IM and CommPeak all advertise Nigerian DIDs and SIP trunking, yet publish no parameters and no confirmed prices. A resale chain means the number stays owned by one of the Nigerian resource holders, and disputes travel through two intermediaries.
• What nobody international offers in Nigeria: number portability, SMS to a local DID and emergency calling. Toll-free 0800 numbers are sold only by local range holders.

The trunk parameters of international providers are standard and described in the catalogue cards in the admin panel: most use REGISTER with a login and password from the portal, some use IP authorisation.

Number porting#

• Mobile portability has worked since 2013. The procedure is set out in the NCC “Nigeria Mobile Number Portability Business Rules & Port Order Processes” (version 2.0, March 2013): the request is filed through the recipient operator and confirmed by the subscriber over SMS. Once the authorisation SMS has been sent, the port order cannot be cancelled.
• Fixed-line portability effectively does not exist. The NCC rules are written for mobile networks only, and DIDWW marks portability for Nigeria as not supported. A fixed number lives with the operator to which the NCC assigned the range: change the operator and you change the number.
• The promise “we will port your fixed number in 2–4 weeks” appears on reseller storefronts. There is no regulatory procedure behind it — demand written confirmation before paying, and do not promise such a port to your guests.
• A number registered to an individual leaves with that person. A mobile SIM is tied to a specific citizen's NIN: if the venue's line is registered to the owner's or a manager's phone, the number goes with them when they leave. For a business, register the number to the company (CAC registration) or take a fixed DID.
• ⚠️ Changing the public address of the PBX breaks a trunk that uses IP authorisation. If the dedicated machine is rebuilt, tell the operator the new address in advance.

Rules and paperwork#

If it does not work#

1. The seller does not answer technical questions. In Nigeria that is the market norm rather than a sign of a bad supplier: parameters are named after signing. Insist on a written answer about UDP/TCP 5060, G.711 and the authorisation mode before you pay — otherwise you risk paying for a trunk that will not meet our PBX.
2. The trunk is not delivered over the internet. An “access link”, delivery over the carrier's own network, a VPN to the premises — all of these mean the call will never reach our cloud PBX. State the scheme “PBX in the cloud, static IP, public internet” in the very first conversation, especially with MTN and ipNX.
3. You were sold a cloud PBX instead of a trunk. 9mobile's cloud PBX, Telvida's per-user plan, Glo's corporate voice package — these are someone else's switch, not a trunk to the outside. The tell during the call: they offer you their handsets and their PBX.
4. Two numbers collapsed into one line. A line is matched by its last seven digits while a Nigerian number is ten digits long, so the city or network code never reaches the match. Two numbers of the same operator in Lagos and Abuja with an identical tail become one line — pick numbers with different tails or separate them with routing.
5. Registration is green but no calls arrive. Check that the number is actually pointed at your trunk on the provider's side, then look at the SIP trace to see the form of the number: 2342011234567, 02011234567 or 2011234567 — that determines whether the line matches.
6. They only offer G.729, or only TLS. Our PBX speaks G.711 and G.722 and accepts trunks over UDP and TCP only. Neither can be fixed with settings — it is settled by choosing a different provider.
7. The trunk flickers along with the power and the link. Nigerian integrators write this into their requirements outright: VoIP needs a UPS or a generator and a router that prioritises voice traffic, otherwise the drops will look like a PBX problem.

A general table of symptoms and causes is in the overview, section “If calls do not go through”.

Frequently asked questions#

Can a Nigerian number be connected to your own PBX at all?#

Yes. The NCC VoIP guidelines explicitly allow an organisation to carry voice over IP across its own network and only require the service to be taken from a licensed operator (§6(6) and §8(4)). The licence is needed by whoever sells the connectivity, not by the venue that uses it.

Who should I approach first?#

If you want a real carrier — MTN (the only published trunk tariff) and ipNX (its own fixed ranges in Lagos and Abuja). If you want it fast and without a corporate contract — AstraQom or DIDWW with a local 201/209 number, or the Lagos resellers Netcat and MultiPair. Three answers decide it: the trunk over the public internet to our static IP, UDP or TCP instead of TLS, and the G.711 codec.

Why is the host, port or password written nowhere?#

Because in Nigeria nobody publishes them — not the carriers, not the resellers, not the international storefronts selling Nigerian numbers. Everything is issued in the contract or in the portal at activation. That is why the tables above give the source of each value rather than an invented address; you fill them in after provisioning.

How long will it take?#

An international aggregator — 1 to 3 business days. A local reseller — from three days to a week and a half. MTN or ipNX — two to four weeks: a corporate contract, agreement on the technical scheme, installation. None of them publishes a provisioning SLA.

Can I buy a Nigerian number without a company in Nigeria?#

Not directly from a carrier: that requires a contract with CAC registration and the signatory's NIN. The route for a non-resident is an international aggregator (DIDWW, AstraQom), where subscriber registration is also mandatory but is handled online and for a foreign legal entity.

Can I display someone else's number on outbound calls?#

No. Number spoofing in Nigeria is subject to regulatory sanctions: the NCC suspended the licences of six interconnect operators and deactivated about a million SIM cards precisely over call masking and refiling. In the “Display as” field put only numbers from your own contract.

Do I have to warn a guest that the call is recorded?#

Yes. The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 applies under NDPC supervision: recording a call is processing of personal data, which requires a lawful basis and notice. A spoken notice at the start of the call is mandatory, and its language follows the country of the venue — English for Nigeria.

Sources#

• NCC — Guidelines on International Gateway Access and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP status, §5–§8, licence fees) — https://ncc.gov.ng/media/1031/view (10 September 2026)
• NCC — National Numbering Plan, March 2024 (fixed zones, mobile prefixes, range holders) — https://www.ncc.gov.ng/sites/default/files/2024-11/Documents/National%20Numbering%20Plan.pdf (10 September 2026)
• NCC — index of guidelines in force — https://ncc.gov.ng/guidelines (10 September 2026)
• NCC — Licensing Framework for Unified Access Service in Nigeria — https://ncc.gov.ng/media/1358/download (10 September 2026)
• NCC — press release on call masking and refiling (85th Telecoms Consumer Parliament, Lagos, 27 September 2018) — https://www.ncc.gov.ng/media-centre/press-releases/ncc-discusses-call-maskingrefiling-and-sim-boxing-tcp-lagos-declares (10 September 2026)
• NCC — Nigeria Mobile Number Portability Business Rules & Port Order Processes, version 2.0 — https://ncc.gov.ng/sites/default/files/2024-11/Documents/Legal-Number_Portability-Business_Rules-Port_Order_Processes.pdf (10 September 2026)
• NCC Consumer Portal — final deadline for NIN-SIM linkage, 14 September 2024 — https://consumer.ncc.gov.ng/articles/92-ncc-announces-final-deadline-for-nin-sim-linkage-compliance-september-14-2024 (10 September 2026)
• Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (text of the act) — https://cert.gov.ng/ngcert/resources/Nigeria_Data_Protection_Act_2023.pdf (10 September 2026)
• MTN Nigeria — MTN SIP Trunking, archived copy of the product page with the tariff — https://web.archive.org/web/2025/https://www.mtn.ng/business/sip-trunking/ (10 September 2026)
• ipNX Nigeria — Enterprise Telephony — https://ipnxnigeria.ng/enterprise-telephony/ (10 September 2026)
• AstraQom — SIP Trunks in Nigeria (prices, zones 201 and 209) — https://www.astraqom.com/ng/nigeria-sip-trunks/ (10 September 2026)
• Netcat Technology Solutions — SIP Trunk service — https://netcatsolutions.ng/sip-trunk-service/ (10 September 2026)
• MultiPair Telecom — SIP Trunk in Nigeria for Business — https://multipairtelecom.com/sip-trunk-voip-nigeria-did/ (10 September 2026)
• ConnectSIP — storefront and contacts — https://connectsip.com/ (10 September 2026)
• Telvida — Plans & Pricing — https://www.telvida.com/pricing (10 September 2026)
• Globacom — Glo Business — https://www.gloworld.com/ng/business (10 September 2026)
• 9mobile — Business section (archived copy) — https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.9mobile.com.ng/business (10 September 2026)
• Airtel Nigeria — SIP Trunk | Nigeria (the page is indexed but unreachable from our network) — https://www.airtel.com.ng/ng/business/sip-trunk (10 September 2026)
• DIDWW — coverage map and local Nigerian numbers — https://www.didww.com/coverage (10 September 2026)
• Twilio — Nigeria: Regulatory Guidelines — https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/ng/regulatory (10 September 2026)

Related pages#

• Connecting a provider's number to your PBX — the shared steps, trunk modes, network requirements and connectivity checks.
• Setting up SIP phones — how to connect desk phones, DECT bases and gateways to extensions.