Telcos warns banks about pending N120bn USSD debt

The N120 billion in Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) debt that banks owe telecommunication companies, according to their statement, would not be forgiven.

They insisted that banks would be disconnected after all efforts at resolution had been made and that banks were required to pay the amount.

Gbenga Adebayo, the chairman of the Nigerian Association of Licenced Telecommunications Operators, revealed this.

He claims that banks have not yet responded favourably to telcos, endangering the continued use of USSD for financial services.

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This is following a disconnection notice the banks issued to the banks recently following regulatory approval from the Nigerian Communication Commission to disconnect banks from USSD access.

He said, “There has been no (progress) and we are going to go ahead. As I said to you the last time, the parties are now following the terms of the agreement between them.

“Individual operators have different models of agreement with different banks. Parties are now following that. Appropriately, each will enforce the disconnection when the time is appropriate. But I can’t say to you that the problem is solved, and I can’t say to you that the problem will go away. For those who are thinking that the banks will not pay, and the operator will forgive it, that will never happen. The sums involved must be paid a hundred per cent. We are not backing down.”

Adebayo stated that the telecoms industry intends to insist on payment or disconnect services. He noted that banks have a moral obligation to pay since they have been collecting payment from their customers for the service.

“The banks have the moral obligation to pay. You can see what is happening, that people are been held to account. Because these are services that are rendered and paid for,” he said, “They deduct money from users of the channel, whereas the money due to the operator is not remitted.

“They are taking money from the bank account of users already. They have the moral burden to pay the debt, and it is not going away.”

He further asserted, “The process of disconnection is ongoing, appropriately we would take that action when we get to the end of the bridge.”

Banks and telcos have been at loggerheads over the payment of USSD services since 2019. When the dispute first started, telcos asserted that banks owed them N32 billion; this amount has since increased to N120 billion.

According to the Alliance for Affordable Internet, only roughly 44% of Nigerians hold cellphones, making USSD their major financial infrastructure. USSD was used in 762.19 million transactions in 2020, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc.