How to Send Bulk SMS in Nigeria: A Step-by-Step Guide

ATAbisola TanzakoJanuary 20, 20259 min read

How to send bulk SMS in Nigeria: phone receiving a message from a business sender ID beside a seven-step checklist from account setup to delivery report

Here is how to send bulk SMS in Nigeria: create an account, register a sender ID, upload a clean opt-in contact list, write your message, top up your credit, send or schedule the campaign, and read the delivery report. Two Nigeria-specific details decide whether your messages arrive. One is the sender ID route you choose, and the other is how you handle numbers on Do-Not-Disturb (DND).

How do I send bulk SMS in Nigeria?

Create your Arkesel account.
Register your sender ID on the promotional or the transactional route.
Build and clean your contact list.
Write your message.
Top up your credit and choose your rate.
Send now or schedule the campaign.
Read the delivery report and act on failed numbers.

One account reaches every major Nigerian network, so you do not need a separate setup for MTN customers and Airtel customers. As reported by Vanguard, citing NCC data, Nigeria had 179.64 million total active telecom subscriptions in December 2025, with MTN holding 51.87%, Airtel 33.94%, Globacom 12.39% and T2 1.80%.

T2 is the network you may still know as 9mobile. Vanguard reported the rebrand in August 2025.

What you need before you start

A business registered in Nigeria. Only a company registered in Nigeria can register a Nigerian sender ID, and you will need its CAC registration certificate.
Contacts who agreed to hear from you. Marketing messages depend on it, as Step 3 explains.
A clear purpose for the send. A promotion and a one-time password (OTP) travel on different routes, with different paperwork and different approval times.

Step 1: Create your Arkesel account

Create a free Arkesel account with your business details to use Arkesel’s bulk SMS in Nigeria service. New accounts receive free credits on signup, which you can use for a test send to your own phone before you run a real campaign.

Your account is where everything else happens. You submit sender IDs, import contacts, write and schedule campaigns, and open delivery reports from the same place.

Step 2: Register your sender ID

A sender ID is the name that appears in place of a phone number when your message arrives, such as your shop or brand name. In Nigeria it must be no more than 11 characters and cannot be all numbers.

Register it before you plan your first send. Nigeria’s Value Added Services and Aggregator Framework says terminating network operators must not deliver any bulk SMS message that has no sender’s ID, so a campaign without one does not reach your customers.

To register, you submit your sender ID from your Arkesel account, and it goes through review before you can use it. Every submission needs your CAC certificate, a description of how you will use the sender ID, and a sample message. What else you provide depends on the route.

	Promotional route	Transactional / OTP route (DND route)
Use it for	Marketing campaigns, offers and announcements	OTPs, payment alerts and other transactional notices
Extra documents	A purpose description of at least 50 characters, for each sender ID	Operational licence (for example, a CBN licence for a financial institution), office address, preferred sender ID, up to 3 sample messages, company name and website URL
Numbers on DND	Not delivered	Delivered, because the DND route bypasses the restriction
Approval time	24 to 48 hours	3 to 4 weeks

Choosing a bulk SMS route in Nigeria: promotional sender ID route versus transactional DND route, compared by use, extra documents, DND delivery and approval time

You can register more than one promotional sender ID, but each one is registered separately. If you plan to send OTPs or account alerts, start the DND route weeks before launch, because it is the slower of the two.

For the regulatory background on sender IDs and unsolicited messages, read our guide to bulk SMS regulations in Nigeria.

Step 3: Build and clean your contact list

Start with people who chose to hear from you, such as customers who signed up for updates or ticked a consent box at checkout. Under the NCC’s VAS and Aggregator Framework, marketing messages sent via an SMS platform can only be delivered to subscribers on the opt-in list, while information messages that are not marketing can go to all subscribers.

What number format should I use for Nigerian contacts?

Store every number in international format, starting with the country code 234 and dropping the leading zero. A number saved as 0803 000 0000 becomes 234 803 000 0000. The NCC’s numbering terminology page gives Nigeria’s country code as 234 and says the international number does not include the trunk prefix, which is that leading 0.

Fix the whole column before you import the file. Remove duplicates at the same time, so nobody receives the same message twice.

How DND 2442 affects your list

Nigerian subscribers control unsolicited messages through the short code 2442. According to the NCC Consumer Portal, anyone can text STOP to 2442 for Full DND, HELP for Partial DND to choose which promotional categories they still receive, or ALLOW to opt out of DND entirely, free of charge on any network.

Networks and aggregators (the companies that connect messaging platforms to the mobile networks) do the screening. The VAS and Aggregator Framework requires operators to keep a central DND database, and operators and aggregators must ensure no adverts are sent to any number on it.

That has a cost for you. On Arkesel’s promotional route, credit is charged for every number you upload, including numbers that do not receive the message because DND blocks them. Keep a list of everyone who has asked you to stop, and remove those numbers before every promotional send.

Cleaning a contact list to send bulk SMS in Nigeria: convert 0803 numbers to 234 format, remove duplicates, and handle DND 2442 opt-outs

Import the list as a contact group

Save your cleaned list as a file and import it into a contact group in your Arkesel account. Groups let you reuse the same audience for later campaigns, such as a group for repeat buyers and another for new sign-ups.

Step 4: Write your message

Arkesel bills per segment. A standard message fits 160 characters, and a single non-standard character such as an emoji switches it to Unicode, which drops each segment to 70 characters (67 once a long message is split). A long or Unicode message is charged as multiple messages.

Write for one segment where you can:

Name your business in the text. Your sender ID shows who is writing, and a short mention in the message confirms it.
Give one clear action. Tell the reader what to do next, such as visit a link, call, or show the message in store.
Personalise with care. Add fields such as first name so each customer sees their own name.
Save what works as a template. Reusable SMS templates keep regular sends such as reminders consistent.

Ready to try it? Import your contact list and schedule your first campaign from your Arkesel account.

Step 5: Top up your credit and choose your rate

Arkesel’s Nigeria page offers Promotional rates for marketing campaigns and Transactional rates for OTPs and corporate alerts. Choose the rate that matches the sender ID route from Step 2.

You can pay by card, bank transfer, or USSD. Check the current Nigeria SMS rates before you top up, and read what bulk SMS costs in Nigeria to plan a budget.

When you estimate credit, count segments rather than messages, and count every number on a promotional list, including any on DND.

Step 6: Send now or schedule

Pick your sender ID, choose the contact group, and paste in your message or template. You can send instantly or schedule for later, and set recurring sends for messages that go out on a regular cycle.

Send a test to your own number first. Read it on the phone, check that the sender ID, the personalised name and any link appear the way you expect, then release the campaign.

Step 7: Read the delivery report

Every campaign produces a real-time delivery report that shows what happened to each recipient. Open it after the send, not only when something looks wrong.

Before you change a contact group, keep a copy of it, such as the original file you imported, so you can restore a number you remove by mistake. Then work through the numbers that did not receive the message:

If a number is not in 234 format, fix it and re-import it.
If a number fails on your promotional sends but receives your transactional messages, treat it as a DND number and move it out of your promotional groups, because DND screens out promotions.
If a number fails on send after send, it may no longer be in use, so remove it from the group.

Review promotional and transactional campaigns separately. They reach different lists under different rules, so one delivery figure across both hides what is working.

How to send bulk SMS in Nigeria through the API

If your messages come from your own app, such as order confirmations or login codes, developers can send bulk SMS through the API instead of the dashboard. The REST API comes with copy-paste code samples in cURL, Python, Node.js and PHP, plus webhooks for notifications.

A sandbox lets your team test API calls without spending live credit. The Arkesel developer documentation has the full reference. The sender ID routes and the DND rules in Steps 2 and 3 apply to API sends too.

Still choosing a platform?

If you are still weighing up which platform to send from, our guide to comparing bulk SMS providers in Nigeria walks through that decision.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to register a sender ID to send bulk SMS in Nigeria?

Yes. Networks will not deliver a bulk message with no sender identity, and on Arkesel your sender ID is approved on the promotional or the DND route before its first use.

Why are some Nigerian numbers not receiving my bulk SMS?

On a promotional campaign, check first whether the number is on DND, because those numbers are screened out. Wrong number formats and numbers no longer in use are the next things to check in your delivery report. For OTPs and alerts, use the DND route, which delivers to numbers on DND.

Can I send bulk SMS from my phone?

A bulk SMS platform sends from your online account rather than from your SIM card. Your messages go out under your registered sender ID instead of your personal number.

Start sending bulk SMS in Nigeria

That is how to send bulk SMS in Nigeria without wasting credit. Register your sender ID on the right route, send only to a clean opt-in list in 234 format, and use the delivery report to tidy the list after every campaign. Those three habits turn more of your credit into delivered messages.

Create a free Arkesel account and submit your Nigerian sender ID today.