By Onyeanya Ebere
Nigeria’s major telecom operators; MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile have threatened to withdraw Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), services to banks over what they describe as misleading communication to customers regarding transaction charges.
The warning comes in response to messages issued by banks to their customers, claiming that, in line with a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), USSD charges will now be deducted from users’ mobile airtime instead of their bank accounts, effective June 3, 2025.
“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,” the notice read. “Going forward, these charges will be deducted directly from your mobile airtime balance in accordance with the NCC’s End-User Billing (EUB), model.”
However, telecom operators under the umbrella of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), have refuted the banks’ claims, calling them gross misinformation designed to protect bank interests at the expense of transparency.
ALTON Chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, criticized the banks for distorting the facts.
He clarified that the move to end-user billing was not an NCC directive but a joint regulatory agreement between the NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with input from both telcos and banks.
“The agreement was that the banks must first clear all outstanding USSD debts owed to telcos by June 2, 2025, before migrating to end-user billing,” Adebayo said. “The process must also ensure that users are not double-charged; meaning a user’s airtime cannot be deducted while their bank account is also debited for the same service.”
Adebayo noted that while a few banks have settled their debts, the majority have not. “Therefore, the migration to the new billing model cannot proceed. The banks are simply jumping the gun and misleading customers,” he stated.
He further warned that if banks continue to misrepresent the agreement and delay debt repayments, telecom operators may be forced to suspend USSD access to banking services altogether.
“USSD is not a mandatory service. If banks cannot honour agreements, they can do without it. But they must clear their debts first,” Adebayo concluded.
The dispute adds to ongoing tensions between telcos and banks over the management of USSD services, a widely used platform for mobile financial transactions in Nigeria.
