The ongoing feud between banks and telecommunication firms in Nigeria has escalated, with recent revelations by the chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, indicating that banks now owe telecom firms a staggering N200 billion for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services. This disclosure follows a slowdown in negotiations between the two parties and was brought to light during the Nigerian Communications Commission’s industry interactive session with the new Executive Vice Chairman\/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Aminu Maida.<\/p>\n
Addressing the issue on behalf of the telcos, Adebayo stressed that the accumulated debt would not be forgiven, emphasizing its detrimental impact on the financial technology economy. He urged prompt payment, stating, “The banks owe us money. The debt is now over N200 billion. It won\u2019t go away; no one will forget the debt if the money is not paid.”<\/p>\n
Adebayo further highlighted that the ongoing discussions between telcos and banks concerning the USSD debt are progressing slowly, raising concerns about their effectiveness. This revelation indicates a significant increase of approximately 66.67% from the N120 billion reported earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The USSD debt saga has been a persistent issue since 2019, with various twists and turns in the attempts to resolve it. Telcos had issued disconnection notices to banks earlier this year, prompting intervention from regulators, including the NCC. Despite past assurances of payment from banks, discussions are reportedly still ongoing, leading to increased frustration among telecom operators.<\/p>\n
In addition to the USSD debt challenge, Adebayo disclosed that telcos now face the burden of paying 52 different taxes and levies, making them one of the most heavily taxed sectors in the country. He pointed out that these taxes not only impact operations but also hinder growth in the sub-sector.<\/p>\n
While addressing the telecom industry, EVC Dr. Aminu Maida called for improved quality of service and experience, urging telcos to embrace innovation despite the challenges in their operating environment. He also hinted at ongoing discussions with Original Equipment Manufacturers to enhance job creation within the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ongoing feud between banks and telecommunication firms in Nigeria has escalated, with recent revelations by the chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, indicating that banks now owe telecom firms a staggering N200 billion for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services. This disclosure follows a slowdown in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6708"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6747,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions\/6747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}