NCC, CBN have resolved N120bn USSD code debt crisis – Danbatta

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof. Umar Danbatta, has said that the lingering issue of N120 billion debt owed by banks for the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), provided by telecom operators has now been resolved.

Danbatta disclosed this at the Telecom Executives and Regulators Forum (TERF) held in Lagos on Thursday.

Recall that the telecom operators under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) had recently threatened to disconnect the banks from the USSD service. This was after several interventions of the immediate past Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, had failed.

With this, he said the banks, after the intervention of the Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Folashodun Shonubi, have agreed to clear the accumulated debt and continue to pay for the USSD service going forward under the corporate billing term.

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According to the EVC, the issue was resolved at a recent meeting between the acting CBN Governor, the NCC, the telecom operators, and the banks.

The resolution, he said, was achieved based on the realization that financial inclusion cannot be achieved without telecom services.Explaining the origin of the problem, Danbatta said the banks’ insistence on end-user billing as opposed to corporate billing led to the debt accumulation.

“Even at that, the service was still being provided to customers by the banks using the telecom infrastructure and the telcos were being paid nothing. This was despite the intervention of the immediate past Minister,” Danbatta explained.

While noting that the situation had remained the same until recently when the Acting CBN Governor intervened, the EVC said the apex bank boss acknowledged that without the USSD service, there would be no digital financial inclusion and the penetration of the inclusion would be nowhere near where it is now.

“At a meeting between the acting CBN governor, the NCC, the telcos and the banks, it was acknowledged that the debt exists, that going forward, the service has to be paid for by the banks through corporate billing. It is an important development for the telecoms industry that we have found an amicable resolution to the problem because we’re all serving the same government. We do not want to disrupt financial services in the country.

“We want to see the financial inclusion penetration to even go higher. We want it to be ubiquitous, but we cannot do this without settling the legacy debt, as well as paying for the service that is being provided,” he said.