The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved for telecommunication companies to disconnect the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes assigned to nine banks as a result of unpaid debts.
This was contained in a public notice issued by Reuben Mouka, Director of Public Affairs of the NCC on Wednesday, January 15, 2025.
In the public notice, Muoka said the affected banks are expected to settle their outstanding debts by January 27, 2025, or risk losing access to their USSD codes.
The affected banks included; Fidelity Bank (770), First City Monument Bank (329), Jaiz Bank (773), Polaris Bank Limited (833), Sterling Bank Limited (832), United Bank for Africa (919), Unity Bank (7799), Wema Bank (945), and Zenith Bank (966).
Mouka explained that the codes which are essential for enabling mobile banking services, could be reassigned to other applicants if the debts remained unresolved.
The spokesperson of the NCC noted that as at Tuesday, January 14, 2025, nine out of 18 banks were yet to comply with regulatory directives.
Mouka further said; “While other banks have cleared their debts, the total amount initially owed by the financial institutions was reported to exceed N200 billion”.
The NCC said that some of the unpaid invoices have remained unpaid since 2020, indicating a prolonged financial dispute between the banks and telecom operators.
The public notice further stated; “By the information made available to the commission as of the close of business on January 14, 2025, out of a total of 18 financial institutions, nine institutions failed to comply significantly with the directives in the Second Joint Circular of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the commission.
“The circular is dated December 20, 2024, and is for the settlement of outstanding invoices due to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), some since 2020,” it said.
The Commission noted that the banks’ failure to comply with the CBN-NCC joint circular also meant that they were unable to meet the good standing requirements for the renewal of the USSD codes assigned to them by the commission.
According to Mouka; “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”.
He said that the banks had been duly notified of the need for immediate compliance and warned that consumers may face service disruptions if the issues remained unresolved.
The latest development highlights ongoing tensions between telecommunications companies and financial institutions over unpaid USSD-related debts, a challenge that has persisted for years.
Meanwhile, data from the CBN revealed that 252.06 million transactions worth N2.19 trillion were conducted via USSD between January and June 2024.
This represents a significant growth compared to 2023 when 630.6 million transactions valued at N4.84 trillion were completed using USSD codes.
