The federal government through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted approval to Mobile Network Operators comprising MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile to disconnect the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes of nine commercial banks from their networks.
This follows years of complaints by the telecom operators over the non-payment of debt owed by the banks for the USSD service, for which the banks continue to charge their customers.
According to a notice issued on Wednesday by the NCC, the banks to be disconnected include First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, Jaiz Bank, UBA, Polaris Bank, Unity Bank, Fidelity Bank, and Wema Bank.
If this is implemented, millions of bank customers will not be able to carry out transactions using USSD.
Meanwhile, the banks have been granted two weeks grace to settle their debts with the telcos, failure upon which their codes will be disconnected.
“The Commission will thereafter recover such Codes and may reassign them to other applicants in accordance with the applicable instruments.
“In fulfilment 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 the notice signed by its Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka.
The telecom regulator noted that as of the close of business on Tuesday, 14th January 2025, of a total of 18 financial institutions, the 9 institutions listed above were the only ones that have failed to comply significantly with the directives in the Second Joint Circular of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and th! Commission dated December 20, 2024, for the settlement ofwards outstanding invoices due to MNOs, some since 2020.
It said 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 financial institutions have been duly notified of the need for immediate compliance in accordance with the Commission’s Guidelines on Short Code Operation in Nigeria, 2023,” the NCC added.
In December 2024, the CBN and NCC issued a circular requiring banks to settle USSD debt. The circular mandated that banks pay a percentage of outstanding invoices and agree to payment plans. It also directed banks to stop legal actions related to the debt.
For years, the mobile network operators had threatened to disconnect the banks over the unpaid debt, which was put at N120 billion as of 2023.
However, the threats could not be carried out because they had to be sanctioned by the telecom regulator.
With a joint resolution of the two industry regulators, the NCC and CBN last year, the path to recovering the debt became clearer for the telecom operators.