Unpaid money owed: Telcos could minimize banks’ USSD entry right now

Cellular Community Operators, together with MTN and Airtel, will cease offering devoted textual content message companies to banks until the lenders settle their excellent money owed to the telcos by the shut of enterprise right now.

The disconnection of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Information service, which impacts cell banking companies utilized by tens of millions of Nigerians, follows an order from the Nigerian Communications Fee—telecom regulator, issued on January 15, 2025.

Underneath the directive, 9 banks have been warned to clear their money owed by January 27, 2025, or threat shedding entry to their USSD codes, an important service enabling clients to conduct banking transactions with out web entry.

Whereas some banks have made funds in keeping with directives from the NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria, operators say a couple of stay non-compliant.

The Chairman of the Affiliation of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, spoke with our correspondent on Sunday.

“Plenty of them are complying in keeping with the regulatory intervention made by the CBN and NCC.

“We nonetheless have a couple of onerous debtors who haven’t complied, however when the time comes, in line with the protocol of that round, we’re going to disconnect,” Adebayo mentioned.

The President of the Affiliation of Telecoms Corporations of Nigeria, Tony Emoekpere, in a dialog with our correspondent on Monday, didn’t present specifics on the matter.

Nonetheless, he acknowledged, “There have been about 9 indebted banks, however I don’t have the small print now on what number of of them have settled. We must wait and get updates from the operators.”

In a memo dated December 20, the banking regulator and the NCC set a deadline of December 31, 2024, for banks to settle 85 per cent of their excellent invoices relationship again to February 2022.

These lenders faulted regulatory directives, prompting the NCC to launch the names of the 9 indebted banks.

Information from the CBN reveals that 252.06 million USSD transactions, valued at N2.19 trillion, have been accomplished between January and June 2024.

This marks a notable shift in comparison with the earlier 12 months when 630.6 million transactions value N4.84 trillion have been carried out by way of USSD.

Initially developed by telecom operators for companies similar to airtime purchases and subscriptions, USSD has developed into an important monetary software, offering banking companies to customers with out the necessity for an web connection.