At least five of the nine banks owing telecommunication companies N160 billion for the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) have made some form of payment after the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) set a January 27 disconnection deadline.
In a notice on January 15, the NCC had stated that it would cut off the USSD access of nine banks over their inability to settle a N160 billion debt that had accumulated since 2019.
The banks included Fidelity Bank Plc (770), First City Monument Bank (329), Jaiz Bank Plc (773), Polaris Bank Limited (833), Sterling Bank Limited (822), United Bank for Africa Plc (919), Unity Bank Plc (7799), Wema Bank Plc (945), and Zenith Bank Plc (966).
However, a top source in the NCC disclosed to BusinessDay on Monday that five of these banks have paid. “Only four or fewer are yet to pay. They are responding. Banks have been responding since the advert came out,” the source said, without giving any names. Another industry source corroborated this but noted that banks still owe telcos.
Industry players expect more banks to meet the NCC’s today’s deadline (January 27) as it plans to cut the USSD access of indebted banks. Reuben Muoka, director of Public Affairs of the NCC, said there would be clarity regarding the issue after the deadline elapses.
He, however, noted that the commission intends to go through with its disconnection notice of January 15.
“In fulfillment of its consumer protection mandate, the Commission wishes to inform consumers that they may be unable to access the USSD platform of the affected financial institutions from January 27, 2025,” the commission said in that notice.
Commercial banks have been unable to settle a payment dispute with telcos over USSD infrastructure since 2019, prompting the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the NCC to order banks to pay a chunk of the USSD debt owed to telcos.
In a December 20 memo, the CBN and the NCC gave banks a December 31, 2024, deadline to pay 85 percent of all outstanding invoices (from February 2022). According to the NCC, nine of the 18 banks indebted to the telcos cleared over 90 percent of their debt by the deadline.
“The financial institutions’ failure to comply with the CBN-NCC joint circular also means that they are unable to meet the Good Standing requirements for the renewal of the USSD codes assigned to them by the Commission,” the NCC noted in its latest communique.
USSD is a crucial payment gateway for many Nigerians, and its disconnection will cut off many from essential banking services.