Mobile telecommunications service providers in the country have secured the approval of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to disconnect Deposit Money Banks’ (DMBs’) services over the lenders’ failure to offset over N120 billion owed on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services.
The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the umbrella group of all telecom operators in the country, confirmed in a statement issued on Friday the telecom sector regulator’s approval and threatened to disconnect the banks any moment from now if they failed to offset the debt.
The association noted that despite the multiparty stakeholders’ efforts, involving the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, the NCC, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the MNOs and DMBs, to amicably resolve the issues of the indebtedness to prevent any impact on services, the DMBs still failed to pay the debt.
In a statement signed by the ALTON Chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, the group stated: “The DMBs have continued to incur greater and greater debt, without making the commensurate payments. Every time some progress is made, the DMBs come up with reasons to take stakeholders several steps back, in this matter.
“Members of the public will recall that MNOs and DMBs have had protracted disagreements concerning the appropriate USSD pricing model for financial transactions, transparency of charges, mode of collection, and liability for payment of the outstanding and continuous service fees due to the MNOs (which currently stand at over N120 billion)”, it added.
While recalling the events that led to the latest decision to disconnect the banks, ALTON pointed out that the MNOs in 2021 had sought to disconnect DMBs due to the unpaid debt, which then was about N42 billion but decided not to due to the Minister’s plea in view of the negative implications for the nation’s economy, especially the digital and financial inclusion drive of the government.
It stated: “It is pertinent to note that the contract between MNOs and DMBs on the use of USSDs for banking transactions is strictly commercial and MNOs are at liberty to withdraw the services if it is established that the transaction is unprofitable to them.
“MNOs have invested billions of naira in expanding their systems to accommodate the USSD needs of DMBs over the years. This has resulted in more Nigerians having access to banking services, in addition to enabling banks to trim costs by requiring less branches to service their growing customers. Unfortunately, MNOs are not getting paid for their services, and the debt that stood at N42 billion in 2021 has now risen to over N120 billion,” the ALTON added.
