Telecommunications providers in Nigeria, including MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Globacom, and 9Mobile, have threatened to withdraw network support for banks’ Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).
This follows their claims of significant misinformation directed at subscribers concerning the method of transaction fee deductions.
USSD, often referred to as ‘bank transfers’, is executed via short codes on mobile devices.
Recall that banks in compliance of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) directive communicated to their customers that they would cease the direct deduction of charges for USSD transactions from customers’ accounts.
They further stated that these charges will now be deducted by telecom operators from users’ mobile airtime.
The notice from the banks read: “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..
“Going forward, these charges will be deducted directly from your mobile airtime balance in accordance with the NCC’s End-User Billing (EUB) model.
“Under this new billing structure, each USSD session will attract a charge of 6.98 per 120 seconds, which will be billed by your mobile network operator.