Effective March 15, Nigerians, who make use of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) shortcode for financial transactions, may experience difficulties in carrying out their transactions.
This is because the telecommunications operators have threatened to withdraw the USSD service from the banks following the insensitivity of the banks to pay the accumulated debt of N42 billion, which have accrued in the last eight months.
The telcos, under the aegis, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) claimed that since the USSD Pricing determination by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which resulted in a price review of USSD service by its members, banks are yet to pay them the accumulated USSD transactions costs.
According to ALTON, the NCC’s updated pricing methodology for USSD services for financial transactions in Nigeria explicitly restricts Mobile Network Operators (MNO’s) from charging the end-user for the services and mandates the banking sector to enter into negotiations to settle outstanding obligations and agree on individual pricing mechanisms to be applied going forwards.ALTON, in a statement signed jointly by the Chairman and Head of Operations, Gbenga Adebayo, and Gbolahan Awonuga, respectively, on Friday, said the body is aware of the letter issued by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy to the Central Bank of Nigeria, seeking a resolution to the on-going dispute between the banking sector (Financial Service Providers (FSPs)) and the telecoms sector over the appropriate methodology to use to charge for USSD services. (Guardian)