NANS Declares Protest Against South African Firms
The leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has raised the stakes in the escalating row over the treatment of Nigerians in South Africa, declaring a nationwide protest that seeks to paralyse the operations of MTN and MultiChoice while pressuring citizens to withdraw their funds from Stanbic IBTC Bank.
The NANS President, addressing the planned action, framed it as a direct response to what the association describes as South Africa’s poor treatment of Nigeria and its nationals. “We are going to shut down MTN and MultiChoice. We will force Nigerians to close their accounts with Stanbic IBTC Bank,” he declared, adding that the body was ready to mobilise students nationwide to see the campaign through. He called on students and members of the public to lend their weight to the demonstration, insisting that South African linked firms operating in the country could no longer thrive while Nigerians faced fear and violence abroad.
The declaration is the sharpest turn yet in a standoff that has been building for months. Back in May, NANS, through its South West Zone D, issued a similar warning after fresh xenophobic attacks reportedly claimed the lives of Nigerians in South Africa. In a statement then credited to the zonal coordinator, Comrade Adeyemo Josiah Kayode, the students said they would organise peaceful picketing and mass advocacy against South African business interests, singling out MTN Group and MultiChoice Group. “It is morally indefensible for businesses to thrive in an environment where the lives of Nigerians are protected, while Nigerians are subjected to fear and violence elsewhere,” that statement read.
The students are not acting in isolation. The National Assembly has itself been drawn into the dispute. In July, the Senate called on President Bola Tinubu to sever diplomatic ties with South Africa over the recurring attacks. Senator Adams Oshiomhole, representing Edo North, had earlier gone further, proposing at plenary that the operating licences of firms such as MTN and MultiChoice be revoked, and even suggesting the nationalisation of MTN Nigeria alongside a thirty day boycott of its services, invoking the principle of reciprocity in international relations.
What gives the threat its weight, and also its complications, is the sheer scale of South African investment in Nigeria. MTN Nigeria remains the MTN Group’s largest and most profitable market, closing 2025 with a subscriber base of about 87.26 million, roughly 28 per cent of the group’s global total, and generating some 3.45 billion dollars in revenue for the year. MultiChoice, operator of the DStv and GOtv platforms, has for years counted Nigeria as its biggest market outside South Africa, while Stanbic IBTC Holdings, tied to South Africa’s Standard Bank, is a significant player in the Nigerian financial services space. Together these firms employ thousands of Nigerians and contribute meaningfully to tax revenue.
That interdependence has drawn caution from economists who warn that a broad shutdown could rebound on the very citizens it aims to protect, through job losses, service disruptions and weakened investor confidence, while exposing Nigerian businesses in South Africa to retaliation. The pattern is not new either. South African firms became proxy targets during earlier bouts of xenophobic violence in 2008, 2015 and 2019, each time weathering licence revocation calls that diplomacy ultimately defused.
For now, the affected companies have kept their customary silence on the latest threat. Further details on the planned nationwide protest are expected as the situation unfolds.