CUG Plans in Nigeria: Closed User Group Call Rates for Business

A closed user group turns calls between your own lines into ₦0.50 a minute — fourteen times cheaper than the best consumer tariff in Nigeria. The cheapest approved CUG bundle is T2’s SME Combo Value: ₦500 a line for 1,000 in-group minutes a month. Glo’s best rate is ₦0.60 a minute on any of its 60k bundles, from ₦500 for 833 minutes up to ₦1,500 for 2,500. ₦0.50 is also the lowest in-group rate the NCC allows any network to charge, so no CUG will ever be cheaper than that. Only Glo and T2 file CUG bundles with the NCC; MTN, Airtel and T2 also file discounted per-minute corporate tariffs. Figures from the NCC tariff filings (operators’ pages last updated 17 July and 31 October 2026) and the NCC’s CUG conditions as amended 23 June 2025. Checked 1 November 2026.

What a Closed User Group Actually Is

A CUG is a list of numbers on one network that call each other at a flat monthly rental instead of per minute. Staff on the list talk to each other almost free. Calls to anyone outside the list — customers, suppliers, family — bill at the line’s normal tariff rate.

That is the whole trick, and it is also the whole limitation. A CUG is only worth buying if a real share of your calling happens inside the group: a dispatch team, a shop with drivers, a clinic with branch offices, a campus department.

The Rate Gap

A ten-line team talking 800 in-group minutes each costs about ₦5,000 a month on T2 SME Combo Value. The same traffic on the cheapest consumer tariff is roughly ₦57,600.

Only Two Networks File CUG Bundles

Glo files twelve CUG bundles, from ₦500 to ₦1,500 a month. The tiers are labelled 60k and 75k: the kobo-per-minute rate used to convert the rental into minutes (₦500 buys 833 minutes at 60k, 667 at 75k). The 60k tier always gives more minutes for the same money, so take it where you are offered both.

T2 (9mobile) files seven SME bundles from ₦500 to ₦1,000. Two of them include SMS: SME Premium adds 60 texts, SME Complete adds 100.

MTN and Airtel file no CUG bundles. They sell corporate plans with a discounted per-minute rate instead, which suits a team whose calls mostly go outward rather than inward. T2 files six corporate flat tariffs on top of its SME bundles, from ₦9.80 a minute.

MTN does advertise a CUG on its business site — a voice and SMS offering for corporates, professional and trade associations and NGOs — but the product page itself is dead and nothing is filed with the NCC, so there is no published rate. You get it through an MTN office or an MTN reseller; resellers have quoted about ₦1,000 a line a month with a three-month minimum and a ₦500 activation fee (TechCabal, February 2024). Treat any reseller price as the reseller’s, not MTN’s, and note that under the NCC conditions the operator answers for anything its agent does.

Corporate Per-Minute Plans

The ranges are real: the rate you get depends on committed volume, and the filing approves the whole band. Treat the low end as what a large account negotiates and the high end as what a small one pays. T2’s corporate tariffs are per-second (16.34 kobo a second on Option 4) with data at ₦51.20 a megabyte, so put a data bundle on any T2 corporate line before anyone opens a browser.

The NCC Rules Every CUG Must Follow

The NCC’s Conditions for Offering Closed User Group Services (in force since 1 November 2023, amended 23 June 2025) fix what any operator or reseller can sell you:

Two things follow. T2’s ₦0.50 on SME Combo Value is the floor itself, so it cannot be beaten, only matched. And a reseller selling “unlimited” CUG calls to a couple or a family is selling outside the conditions, whatever the SMS confirmation says.

The Rental Trap on Glo

Every Glo corporate plan carries the same condition in its filing: if the monthly rental is not paid, calls bill at ₦18 a minute. That is above Glo’s most expensive consumer plan. A lapsed rental on a twenty-line account is an expensive month.

Glo’s own SME Biz Class page says the same thing a different way: a lapsed rental keeps the line connected but moves it to 20 kobo a second on-net and 30 kobo a second to other networks, ₦12 and ₦18 a minute.

Set the rental to pay automatically, and check it each month. T2’s SME bundles and MTN’s corporate plans carry no equivalent reversion clause in the filing.

What Glo’s Business Pages Advertise

Glo’s website (checked 1 November 2026) sells CUG as part of packaged SME and corporate plans rather than under the CUG_500_60k style names in the NCC filing:

• SME Biz Class: ₦500 a month for 1,000 CUG minutes, or ₦1,000 for 2,000, both 30 days. That is ₦0.50 a minute, better than the ₦0.60 of the filed 60k bundles.
• Business Premium: ₦1,000 a month with 2,000 CUG minutes, postpaid, hybrid or prepaid.
• SME Flexi: CUG is optional, ₦500 for a limited pool or ₦1,000 for “unlimited”.

The call rates on those pages are quoted in kobo per second (14k to 21k a second, which is ₦8.40 to ₦12.60 a minute) and the pages contradict each other in places, so ask the business desk which filed bundle your lines will sit on and get the minutes in writing. The NCC filing is what the operator is held to.

How to Set One Up

CUG and SME bundles are not sold through the ordinary USSD menus. You register the group through the operator’s business arm:

• Glo: any Glo business office, or the Business Enterprise contact form on gloworld.com. Glo customer care on 121 can route you.
• T2: a T2 experience centre, 08090000300, WhatsApp 09092000192 or 09092000198, or care@t2mobile.com.ng. The business section of t2mobile.com.ng has a CUG heading but no plan details, so you will be talking to a person.
• MTN: dial 300 or email letstalk.ng@mtn.com; the business call-back form is the fastest way to get a sales rep.
• Airtel: the enterprise sales desk, since the corporate rate is negotiated rather than listed. The Airtel business website only renders in a browser with JavaScript on, so do not expect to read the plans there.

The amended NCC conditions set the paperwork. For a company, NGO or MSME:

1. CAC document: certificate of incorporation, business name certificate, cooperative registration or incorporated trustees.
2. Tax Identification Number.
3. A signed contract with the operator. For an MSME, the operator’s standard terms signed by both sides is enough.
4. Proof of identity for every member of the group. A list of staff IDs on a signed letter is accepted in place of ID cards.
5. The NIN of two company representatives (director, CEO or executive management). An MSME needs only the CEO’s NIN.
6. A request letter on company letterhead signed by two representatives, or by the company’s Primary Telecom Master.

Staff do not have to hand over their personal NIN to be put on the group, which was the sticking point under the 2022 NIN-SIM rules. Adding or removing a member later only takes an email from the Primary Telecom Master. Lines have to be on the same network and the SIMs are registered as corporate SIMs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cheapest CUG plan in Nigeria?

T2’s SME Combo Value at ₦500 a line for 1,000 in-group minutes a month, which works out at ₦0.50 a minute, the regulatory floor. Glo’s best filed rate is ₦0.60 a minute on any 60k-tier bundle, from ₦500 a line; its website advertises SME Biz Class at ₦500 for 1,000 CUG minutes, which would match T2.

Do CUG minutes work for calls outside the group?

No. They only cover calls between lines registered in the group. Everything else bills at the line’s normal tariff rate, so budget for outside calls separately.

Can MTN or Airtel do a CUG?

Neither files a CUG bundle with the NCC. MTN markets one for corporates and associations through its offices and resellers, with no published rate. Both sell corporate plans with discounted per-minute rates — Airtel’s Corporate Airtime Share is the cheapest approved corporate rate on any network at ₦6.60 a minute.

How many lines do I need for a CUG?

Three, by NCC rule. The ceiling depends on what you are: 200 lines for an MSME, 2,000 for an estate or trade association, 10,000 for an NGO, 20,000 for a government agency, 30,000 for a large corporate. The arithmetic starts working from the first three lines, because the saving is per line and the rental is per line.

Can a CUG include data?

No. The NCC conditions restrict CUG to voice and SMS and ban bundling the rental with data. Buy data separately on each line; on T2 that matters, because pay-as-you-go data on a corporate line is ₦51.20 a megabyte.

Does every staff member have to give their NIN?

No. Since the 2025 amendment, the operator takes the NIN of two company representatives (one, the CEO, for an MSME) plus proof of identity for members, and a signed staff list stands in for ID cards.

Can a family or group of friends buy a CUG?

Not under the NCC conditions, which list six kinds of organisation and require registration documents and a TIN. Resellers who activate family CUGs are working outside those conditions, and the operator can withdraw the service.

Can a line have a CUG bundle and a normal tariff plan?

Yes. The CUG bundle covers in-group calls; the tariff plan covers everything else. Pick the tariff plan the same way you would for a personal line.

What happens if I do not pay the rental?

On every Glo corporate plan, calls revert to ₦18 a minute until the rental is settled. That is more than any Glo consumer plan charges.

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