The planned disconnection of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data services for nine commercial banks may be averted, as the affected banks have started working to settle their debts before the January 27th deadline.
Sources within telecom operators revealed that some banks have already made partial payments, while others, previously defiant, are now requesting negotiations following the announcement of the sanction, according to Nairametrics.
This comes as telecom operators blamed the regulator for delaying action, which contributed to the accumulation of the debt, reaching about N200 billion. The debt continued to grow until late last year, when some of the banks began making payments.
USSD banking is an SMS-based mobile service that enables users to interact directly with their bank via their mobile phones.
Millions of Nigerian bank customers rely on USSD codes daily to access financial services such as transfers, bill payments, and airtime recharges.
In addition to the threat of disconnection from the networks, the Nigerian Communications Commission issued a public notice last week stating that it would also withdraw the shortcodes allocated to the nine affected banks after January 27th.
A senior official from one of the telecom companies, who wished to remain anonymous due to lack of authorization to speak, revealed that these sanctions, which could significantly impact the banks’ revenue and customer base, have prompted the banks to take steps toward resolving the issue.
“Some of them have started paying in bits because they know this could impact their revenue. Those who have refused to listen to us before are now calling for negotiation.
“This is what they could have done long before now but because there was no regulatory pronouncement, they never took it seriously,” the source stated.
In December last year, both the NCC and the CBN issued a joint circular to Mobile Network Operators and banks, outlining guidelines for resolving the debt issue.
The circular, dated December 20, 2024, and signed by Oladimeji Taiwo, the Ag Director of the Payments System Management Department at the CBN, and Chizua Whyte, the Head of Legal and Regulatory Services at the NCC, detailed specific measures for debt settlement.
The circular mandates that Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) settle 85% of all outstanding invoices issued after the implementation of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) by December 31, 2024.
Additionally, all future invoices must be settled at 85% within one month of issuance.
