Telcos threaten to withdraw services over Banks’ deliberate ‘misinformation’ to customers regarding transaction fee deductions. ‘

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 - Telecommunications operators in Nigeria — including MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9Mobile, have threatened to withdraw network support for banks’ Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services, citing what they described as deliberate misinformation to customers regarding transaction fee deductions.

USSD, commonly used for mobile banking, enables transactions through short codes dialed on mobile phones.

On June 3, several banks issued a public notice claiming that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had directed them to stop deducting USSD charges directly from customers’ bank accounts. According to the notice, charges would now be deducted from users’ mobile airtime balances.

The banks’ notice stated:

“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 structure, each USSD session will attract a charge of ₦6.98 per 120 seconds, which will be billed by your mobile network operator.You will receive a consent prompt at the start of each session, and airtime will only be deducted upon your confirmation and the bank’s availability to process the service.

If you do not wish to continue using USSD banking under this new model, you may choose to stop using the USSD channel.”

In a swift response, the telecom operators, under the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), condemned the banks’ message as misleading and self-serving. They accused the banks of twisting facts to favor their own interests and warned of a potential withdrawal of telecom support for USSD services if the issue was not resolved.

Chairman of ALTON, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo,said in statement

“I don’t understand why the banks are distorting agreements to suit themselves. The information they released wasn’t a directive from the NCC, but the outcome of a joint regulatory agreement involving the NCC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the telcos, and the banks.The agreement was that if the banks cleared their outstanding USSD debts to telcos by June 2, 2025, they could then migrate to the end-user billing model — provided the process was transparent and mutually agreed upon.”“At this point, while a few banks have settled their debts, most have not. So, even if all modalities for migration are in place, implementation cannot begin until these debts are cleared,” he added.

ALTON warned that if the banks continued to violate the agreement and mislead the public, the telecom industry may suspend USSD support for banking services altogether.

“If this is how they plan to handle the agreement, we may withdraw USSD support. It's not compulsory. They can operate without it, but they must first settle their debts — as agreed,” Adebayo concluded.