Apparently concerned about the seeming unwillingness of deposit money banks (DMBs) to settle the accumulated N130 billion USSD debt owed its members, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), have threatened to take legal action in order to recover the unpaid Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), now estimated at N130 billion as of September this year.
The National Chairman of the telecom operators’ umbrella group (ALTON), Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, who gave this hint during an interview at the weekend, said the telecoms operators decided to take the option of legal battle as the last resort, after several failed attempts to amicably resolve the indebtedness matter.
He explained the issue of unpaid USSD debt was part of the association’s submission to the new Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, when the ALTON’s team paid a courtesy visit to him last week in Abuja
According to him, the Minister expressed his concern over the lingering issue of unpaid USSD debt and advised telecom operators to have an independent Think-Tank that would look at the issues surrounding telecoms operations in Nigeria and develop empirical data that would best explain the economic implications of the challenges.
The ALTON President said: “The issue of USSD debt was discussed with the Minister, and he was quite concerned and worried that the matter has lingered for too long unresolved.
“Since the matter has dragged for too long, the best bet is to withdraw the USSD service from the banks and challenge them to pay for the accumulated debt that has reached N130 billion as at September this year. To get this done, we are contemplating at going to court to resolve the matter.
“The issue has lingered for too long and debt accumulated, and I think it’s time to go to court to address the issue. We are thinking so because every effort made by telcos and the government to make the banks pay their debt, has not yielded positive result. It has been like taking two steps forward and taking one step backward”, Adebayo added.
He recalled that the telecom operators had a commercial service agreement with the banks several years ago to provide them with the USSD service that would enable seamless financial transactions like money transfers through the mobile phones, but lamented that the agreement didn’t achieve much as the banks refused to keep to the terms of the agreement, which had provisions for third party intervention, that include legal action.
He maintained that “the agreement permits parties to go to anywhere, including law court to resolve issues. So instead of the continuous meetings that have not yielded results, we are contemplating taking the next line of action, which is to go to court.”
It would be recalled that the ALTON President had last month confirmed that discussions were on-going and that there was increased commitment on the part of the banks to settle the accumulated debt as against their past stance when there was no commitment on the payment of the debt.
