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USSD debt: NCC grants telcos approval to disconnect FCMB, Zenith, 7 different banks 

The Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) has granted approval to Cell Community Operators comprising MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, to disconnect the Unstructured Supplementary Service Knowledge (USSD) codes of 9 industrial banks from their networks.

This follows years of complaints by the telecom operators over the non-payment of debt owed by the banks for the USSD service, for which the banks proceed to cost their prospects.

In keeping with a discover issued on Wednesday by the NCC, the banks to be disconnected embrace First Metropolis Monument Bank (FCMB), Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, Jaiz Bank, UBA, Polaris Bank, Unity Bank, Fidelity Bank, and Wema Bank.

If the disconnect is applied, tens of millions of bank prospects won’t be able to hold out transactions utilizing USSD.

Two weeks grace 

The banks, nevertheless, have been given a two-week grace to settle their money owed with the telcos, failure upon which their codes will likely be disconnected.

“The Fee will thereafter get better such Codes and will reassign them to different candidates in accordance with the relevant devices.  

“In fulfilment of its client safety mandate, the Fee needs to tell customers that they might be unable to entry the USSD platform of the affected monetary establishments from January 27, 2025,” the Fee stated within the discover signed by its Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka. 

  • The telecom regulator famous that as of the shut of enterprise on Tuesday, 14th January 2025, of a complete of 18 monetary establishments, the 9 establishments listed above have been the one ones which have did not comply considerably with the directives within the Second Joint Round of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Fee dated December 20, 2024, for the settlement of excellent invoices because of MNOs,  some since 2020.
  • It stated the monetary establishments’ failure to adjust to the CBN-NCC Joint Round additionally implies that they’re unable to satisfy the Good Standing necessities for the renewal of the USSD Codes assigned to them by the Fee.

“The monetary establishments have been duly notified of the necessity for rapid compliance in accordance with the Fee’s Tips on Brief Code Operation in Nigeria, 2023,” the NCC added.

What you need to know 

In December 2024, the CBN and NCC issued a round requiring banks to settle USSD debt. The round mandated that banks pay a share of excellent invoices and comply with fee plans. It additionally directed banks to cease authorized actions associated to the debt.

  • For years, the cellular community operators had threatened to disconnect the banks over the unpaid debt, which was put at N120 billion as of 2023.
  • Nevertheless, the threats couldn’t be carried out as a result of they needed to be sanctioned by the telecom regulator.
  • With a joint decision of the 2 business regulators, the NCC and CBN final yr, the trail to recovering the debt grew to become clearer for the telecom operators.

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