From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced a significant change regarding the deduction of charges for unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) transactions.
Effective Tuesday, June 3, 2025, deposit money banks (DMBs) are prohibited from directly deducting these charges from customers’ bank accounts. Instead, the fees will now be taken from users’ mobile airtime.
This update was communicated to customers via an email from the United Bank for Africa (UBA) on Tuesday.
The bank’s statement read, “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, the announcement specifies, “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 billing structure, users will incur a charge of ₦6.98 for each 120-second USSD session, a fee billed by the respective mobile network operators.
Customers will receive a consent prompt at the start of each session; airtime will only be deducted upon their confirmation and if their bank is available to process the service. The UBA added, “If you do not wish to continue using USSD banking under this new model, you may choose to discontinue use of the USSD channel.”
UBA also reassured its customers that they can continue to utilise alternative digital banking options and the internet banking platform for their convenience.
This latest directive is seen as another effort by the NCC to address the ongoing payment disputes between mobile network operators (MNOs) and commercial banks concerning USSD transactions. The history of these conflicts dates back to December 2024, when both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the NCC instructed MNOs and DMBs to resolve a substantial USSD debt amounting to ₦250 billion.
In light of escalating tensions, including threats from telecommunications companies to withdraw services over this accumulated debt, the NCC issued a warning in January to suspend USSD services and compile a list of banks that remained in debt to telecom providers.
On January 15, the regulator mandated that telcos disconnect USSD codes assigned to nine banks by January 27 due to outstanding payments.
Most recently, on February 28, MTN Nigeria reported receiving ₦32 billion out of ₦72 billion owed by banks for USSD services.
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