MTN, Airtel, and Glo among others have threatened to stop banks USSD services.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that telecommunications providers in Nigeria, including MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Globacom, and 9Mobile, have issued a stern warning regarding the potential withdrawal of network support for banks’ Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).
This Nigeria news platform understands that this action follows their claims of significant misinformation directed at subscribers concerning the method of transaction fee deductions.
USSD, often referred to as ‘bank transfers’, is executed via short codes on mobile devices.
ALSO: Zenith Bank, Access Holdings, Others Incur N3.77 Trillion In Loan Losses Since 2023
Yesterday, the banks communicated to their customers that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has instructed them to cease the direct deduction of charges for USSD transactions from customers’ accounts.
They further stated that these charges will now be deducted by telecom operators from users’ mobile airtime.
The notice from the banks read: “In line with the directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), please be informed that effective June 3, 2025, charges for USSD banking services will no longer be deducted from your bank account..
“Going forward, these charges will be deducted directly from your mobile airtime balance in accordance with the NCC’s End-User Billing (EUB) model.
“Under this new billing structure, each USSD session will attract a charge of ?6.98 per 120 seconds, which will be billed by your mobile network operator.
“You will receive a consent prompt at the start of each session, and airtime will only be deducted upon your confirmation and availability of the bank to fulfill this service.
“If you do not wish to continue using USSD banking under this new model, you may choose to discontinue use of the USSD channel.”
In a prompt response, the telecommunications companies represented by their umbrella organisation, the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), stated that the banks’ announcement is a significant misrepresentation intentionally crafted to serve their own interests. Consequently, they warned of the possibility of withdrawing network support for the banks’ USSD services.
“I don’t understand why the banks are twisting agreements and distorting information just to favour their selfish interests. In the first place, the information wasn’t a directive from the NCC but a joint regulatory agreement between the NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN witnessed by the telcos and the banks. The agreement was that if the banks finally cleared all USSD debts owed the telcos by June 2, 2025, they are free to migrate to the end-user billing method, so long as the model of migration is transparent and agreed by the telcos.
“The reason for that clause was because the telcos insisted that the process of migration is such that will not allow a customer to be billed twice; in other words, that a subscriber would not have his airtime deducted and also have his or her money deducted for same services from his or her bank account.
” As we speak, some of the banks have cleared their debts but the majority are yet to do so. So, even if all the modalities of migrating to end user billing have been perfectly carried out, the implementation cannot even begin because the banks are yet to clear the USSD debt owed to the telcos.
“Our position now is that if that is the way the banks want to treat the agreement, we may withdraw support for their USSD services. It is not a must have. They can do without it. But, they should clear the debts as agreed,” Chairman of ALTON Engr Gbenga Adebayo told Vanguard in an interview.
