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Tag: USSD

  • USSD banking services to stop working over huge banks’ debts

    USSD banking services to stop working over huge banks’ debts

    The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) on Friday said its members will withdraw USSD services from financial service providers due to huge indebtedness.

    ALTON said this in a statement on Friday signed by its Chairman, Mr Gbenga Adebayo and Head of Operations, Mr Gbolahan Awonuga.

    It said that with the concurrence of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy and the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mobile Network Operators would disconnect Financial Service Providers (FSPs) from USSD services, until their huge debt was paid.

    ALTON noted that its members were initiating a phased process of withdrawal of USSD services, starting with the most significant debtors within the FSPs effective March 15.

    It said that members had continued to provide USSD services because their primary concern was that millions of Nigerian customers access financial services through USSD infrastructure everyday.

    The association said it was given greater importance when customers’ became reliant on these services due to the COVID-19 movement restrictions.

    “Unfortunately, due to huge indebtedness and the possibility to agree on a structure for these payments without asking end-users to pay, the government has been forced to intervene.

    “The government intervened to ensure that a sustainable cost-sharing solution is agreed on, so that consumers do not get affected in the long-term,” said the statement.

    It said that members deeply regret reaching a point where the withdrawal of these services had become unavoidable.

    That they would remain committed to working closely with the relevant ministries and regulators to resolve the issue as quickly as possible to minimise the disruption to customers.

    The statement, however, encouraged subscribers to explore alternative channels with their banks, while the withdrawal of USSD service was in place.

    The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Issa Pantami had issued a letter to the Central Bank of Nigeria, seeking a resolution of the on-going dispute between the banking sector and the telecoms sector over appropriate methodology to use to charge for USSD services.

  • USSD CODE, CBN, Banks, Telcos and the coming of anarchy – Okoh Aihe

    USSD CODE, CBN, Banks, Telcos and the coming of anarchy – Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

    I do not like the word, anarchy. The word serves a full dose of what is happening in our land, a chaotic state of disorderliness where nobody seems to be in charge, where everybody seems to smell imminent perdition and yet unable to do something about it.

    Where students disappear at school and bus load of passengers spirited into the bush only for the degenerates to be approached by men of means and power for peace and ransom negotiations. This kind of anarchy confers too much confidence on the malevolent as the state gets progressively helpless.

    The unfortunate thing about anarchy is that it percolates, like some water on the rooftop and begin to sip downwards for destructive effects. Some anarchies take time to package, garnished by the inefficiency of governments and would also take some time to resolve, that is, if the state survives and lives to tell the story!

    I do not like the word, anarchy. That is why I do not like what the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is doing; taking advantage of its overwhelming autonomy to create chaos in the financial sector, and in the process take along other supposedly independent organizations in a foolhardy journey to disaster.
    Oh, speaking in tongues of irony? How can the CBN, charged with the health of the financial sector and economy be the one to take it down? I am never one to comment on the imperfections of the current administration of the CBN as every one of us will have our place in the history books where we are judged for healthy posterity or be damned forever.

    Just for the banks to know, something will have to give if they don’t pay the renewal fee of N10m for the USSD which they were getting free. A punishing punch for voracious greed in pursuit of profit!

    Now, let’s quit speaking in tongues and return to the topic full blast. USSD may not make so much sense to the ordinary folks out there. Full meaning is Unstructured Supplementary Service Data. USSD is a communications protocol used by the GSM cellular telephone to perform real-time communication with the mobile network. Due to the real-time feature and responsiveness, it has enabled value added services (VAS) to be integrated to the legacy service being provided by the mobile network operators.

    An expert listed the benefits of USSD as follows: USSD works with all GSM standard mobile phones, including the feature phones. This will enable wider accessibility and utilization of services deployed on the USSD bearer; USSD does not depend on data or internet to operate and it is easily accessible anytime and anywhere; USSD can be assessed when roaming; USSD enables real-time transactions as well as being friendly, as it only prompts the user to select from the pre-defined intuitive menu. This makes it easier and more interactive for businesses to deploy and engage their customers.

    The interactive nature of USSD has encouraged other sectors outside telecommunications to converge their services seamlessly with telecommunications for wider reach. The large patronage of USSD services has created more streams for the operators and government, as well as providing a high level service satisfaction to the end users. Thus, all stakeholders benefit.

    All stakeholders benefit is now a wishful expectation. This is where anarchy may unleash shortly. Let me help you with a little story. By way of supporting the financial inclusiveness policy of the current administration, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) who is the regulator of the telecommunications industry, the CBN and the Mobile operators came up with an understanding to help the banks take services to even remote, unbanked environments. NCC gave the banks USSD free of charge. This will enable banks carry out all kinds of transactions which are powered by the mobile operators.

    With very little modesty, it is important to point out here that without the mobile operators in Nigeria, financial inclusiveness would be a mirage; mobile money and other online financial transactions would be a myth, and our dear country would make her way back to the Stone Age or much closer, the days of trade by barter. But the sticky point here is, who pays the mobile operators for the use of their platforms?

    Recall that in August last year, the NCC was forced to revise a Determination on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) pricing published on July 23, 2019 which allowed mobile operators to charge subscribers for USSD services. The Determination was overruled by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, who argued but very reasonably, that “USSD is a service to banks and not to the Telecom Consumers, and as such, banks should see themselves as corporate customers of telecom operators with a duty to pay for using the telecom network and infrastructure, including USSD channels extended to them for service delivery to their customers.”

    Even when the Minister was pilloried for such a brazen intrusion into the regulatory terrain of the NCC, his action favoured the people who were spared such extraneous charges on services for which some other parties were already making a killing profit.

    Since then however, nobody has made any payment for USSD services. And the debts are piling up.

    The CBN in a cultured haughtiness is holding meetings with the mobile operators without recourse to the NCC. The banks in their characteristic arrogance are refusing to make any payment on debts running into hundreds of billions. And wait for this: for each USSD service, the banks charge between N53 and N70 but they are refusing to pay just over N1 to the platform owners.

    This writer gathered over the weekend that all parties are close to the panic button. The NCC is coming up with documentations to compel the banks to pay up their debt.

    Should they refuse to pay within an acceptable window, the operators will be permitted to unplug the banks from their platforms. Then anarchy will be let loose on the financial sector and the crowd will return to the banking halls in addition to the trauma of COVID-19.

    Just for the banks to know, something will have to give if they don’t pay the renewal fee of N10m for the USSD which they were getting free. A punishing punch for voracious greed in pursuit of profit!
    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja.

  • Respite as NCC stops double billing of Nigerians using USSD for financial transactions

    Respite as NCC stops double billing of Nigerians using USSD for financial transactions

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has stopped financial services providers (FSPs) and network services providers from double billing Nigerians who use Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for financial transactions.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports this is contained in the Determination of USSD Pricing (amended) released by the NCC, which was signed by Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission.

    Recall that to facilitate the provision of financial services over USSD channel, the NCC proactively issue shortcodes (USSD Strings) to financial service providers.

    The USSD strings are used by the customers of the FSPs to carry out digital financial service transactions, and the FSPs had demanded that network services providers should migrate from corporate billing to end-user billing, which resulted in a public outcry.

    However, the NCC reviewed the issue, in consultation with the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, and concluded that the use of USSD channel for financial transactions is a service provided by the network services providers to/for the financial service providers.

    According to the NCC, customers have no direct relationship with the network services providers vis-a-vis financial services assessed through the USSD string and as such cannot be charged directly for the use of the USSD channel.

    “Charging consumers directly for the use of USSD for financial services would result in double billing since the FSPs also charge the consumers for such services,” NCC stated.

    The Commission categorically stated that network services providers must not charge consumers directly for the use of USSD channel for financial services in the form of end-user-billing.

    The NCC also stated that the transaction should be between the network services providers and the entity to which the service is provided.

    “All billings by MNOs for Financial Service using USSD code assigned to FSPs must thereby be implemented via the Corporate Billing model,” NCC stated.

    This, according to the NCC, takes effect from the 1st day of August 2020 and remains valid and binding on licensees and service providers on USSD channels.

  • USSD: Nigerians angry as MTN introduces N4 charge for banking services

    • FG distances self from new USSD charge

    Nigerians were on Sunday aggrieved as Nigeria telecommunication operator, MTN introduces new charge for customers who use unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) channels to access banking services.

    According to the message that was sent by MTN to its users, the new charge is to commence on October 21, 2019.

    The message reads: “Please note that from Oct 21, we will charge N4 per 20 seconds for USSD access to banking services. Thank you,” a notification sent by MTN to customers read.

    FG reacts: orders suspension of the new USSD charges
    Meanwhile, the federal government has reacted to the news on the new USSD charge.
    In a statement released by, Uwa Suleiman, Spokesperson to the Minister of Communications, the Federal Ministry of Communications directed that the said new charges be suspended until the Hon. Minister is fully and properly briefed.
    The statement reads, “The attention of the Federal Ministry of Communications has been drawn to the viral text message allegedly sent by the Mobile Network Operator, MTN Nigeria and other mobile operators notifying subscribers of an (N4.00) charge per 20 seconds on USSD access to banking services from the 21st of October 2019.

    The office of the Hon. Minister of Communications Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, FNCS, FBCS, FIIM is unaware of this development and has hereby directed the sector regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) ensures the operator suspends such plans until the Hon. Minister is fully and properly briefed.”

    Already, the development has elicited reactions from customers. Here are some of the reactions from Twitter.

  • CBN sets limit for daily mobile money transfer at N100,000

    CBN sets limit for daily mobile money transfer at N100,000

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has set the sum of N100,000 as the maximum amount a bank customer can transfer via mobile phones using shortcodes.

    In a statement signed by Director, Banking and Payment systems of CBN, Dipo Fatokun, the decision was made because of the risks associated with mobile banking.

    “Concerns have been expressed on the likely exposure of CBN-approved entities to the possible breaching of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) accessed by financial services in view of likely vulnerabilities in the technology and the ever-growing threats,” the electronic circular read.

    Among other directives listed in the statement, CBN said, “Put a limit of N100,000.00 per customer, per day for transactions as may be required. However, customers desirous of higher limits shall execute documented indemnities with their banks or MMOs.

    Mandate the use of an effective 2nd-factor authentication (2FA) by customers for all transactions above N20,000. This shall be in addition to the PIN being used as 1st level authenticator, which applies to all transaction amounts.”

    The new directive is expected to take effect from June 2018.

    The bank added that any customer that would like to do transactions over N20,000 will require a pin and soft token which they would get from their banks.

    Banks are also expected to “install behaviour monitoring system with capacity to detect sim swap/ churn status, user location, unusual transactions at weekends, etc.”

    This system is expected to be put in place by October 31st, 2018.