Bank CEOs applaud NCC’s decision to suspend USSD charges by Telcos  

LAGOS, Nigeria – The Body of Bank Chief Executive Officers has applauded the recent notice from the National Communications Commission (NCC) announcing immediate suspension of end-user billing for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services.

“We would like to thank the Federal Government of Nigeria for championing this action”, the Body of Bank CEOs said in a statement, adding when presented with two options by the telecommunications companies – corporate billing versus end-user billing – banks supported the standard practice for a relationship between a telecommunications company and their subscribers.

“We proposed the same method they charge for voice calls, SMS and data”, the body said, adding “we then asked to work with the telecommunications companies to bring the cost of their USSD service down for Nigerians”, but that the were very surprised at the announcements from MTN on the 19th and 20th October, 2019.

The body explained that since banks cannot reasonably be expected to charge for the service of another industry, over which they have no control of price, quality and security, they are delighted that consumers will now be able to access their bank for free, using USSD.

“This is a giant leap for the National Financial Inclusion Strategy where, through Bank’s subsidising USSD, we have already been able to bring 20m Nigerians into the formal financial system in recent years”, the Body of Bank CEOs said.

According to them, the Banks, supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria, have long advocated for the designation of USSD services as a critical national asset to enable such free access to USSD, stressing that in countries like India, free access to USSD channels have long been established to successfully drive financial inclusion.

“We look forward to working with the telecommunications industry to achieve the objectives of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy. We believe that with this new development, we will achieve 80% financial inclusion in 2020”, the Body of Bank CEOs said.