(3 minutes read)
A tussle has erupted between Nigerian banks and telecommunications operators over the unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) debt. For a while, this row was on the back burner. Telcos disclosed that the debt has risen to N80 billion, which is beyond their capacity to bear.
A tussle has erupted between Nigerian banks and telecommunications operators over the unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) debt. For a while, this row was on the back burner. Telcos disclosed that the debt has risen to N80 billion, which is beyond their bearing capacity.
Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, warned that telcos may disconnect service to defaulting banks. The USSD debt had hit N45 billion as of April 2021. Upon discontinuing services, bank customers will face problems transferring funds as well as other transactions associated with the service.
Already, most of the banks’ digital channels are overstretched. This has been compounded by the mass resignation of most of the IT experts in the banks, who were relocated abroad. USSD is important for banks to provide a range of services to their customers. It is powered by telcos. USSD and allows users’ SIMs to communicate with the bank’s customers via text message.
Read Also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/nigeria-should-stop-tendency-to-print-excessive-currency/
https://trendsnafrica.com/nigerias-oil-production-further-slumps/
https://trendsnafrica.com/nigerias-inflation-hits-20/
After two years of negotiations, the charge was pegged at N6.98 per transaction with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which will be passed to the users. The issue has become a major headache to the industry, stressing that over 40 different taxes are slammed on the operators.
