The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has announced plans to disconnect Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) if they fail to pay the debt owed to operators for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services which amount to over N120 billion.
Telecommunications Operators in Nigeria say they have been granted approval by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to disconnect banks over N120 billion Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) debt.
This was made known in a statement signed by Mr Gbenga
Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators
of Nigeria (ALTON), on Friday in Lagos.
He said that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) would
disconnect banks if they failed to pay the debt owed.
Adebayo said that the approval was granted because in spite
of the multi-party stakeholder efforts to resolve the situation and prevent any
impact on services, banks continued to incur greater debt, without making the
commensurate payments.
He said members of the public would recall that MNOs and
banks 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.
“Due to the inability of MNOs and banks to reach an
agreement on the issues, MNOs in 2021 sought to disconnect banks due to the
unpaid debts which stood at N42 billion as at that time.
“However, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy,
Prof. Isa Pantami, intervened and asked the MNOs not to disconnect banks as the
action would negatively impact on the digital and financial inclusion policy of
the Federal Government.
“Unfortunately, the patriotic intervention of the minister
and the NCC have been taken for granted by the banks, as two years after, the
banks have failed to sign a final agreement,” he said.
Adebayo said it was pertinent to note that the contract
between MNOs and banks on the use of USSDs for banking transactions was
strictly commercial and MNOs were at liberty to withdraw the services if the
transaction was unprofitable to them.
He noted that MNOs had invested billions of naira in
expanding their systems to accommodate the USSD needs of banks over the years.
Adebayo said this had resulted in more Nigerians having
access to banking services in addition to enabling banks to trim down costs by
requiring less branches to service their growing customers.
He said that unfortunately, MNOs were not getting paid for
their services and the debt that stood at N42 billion in 2021 had now risen to
over N120 billion.
“It is obvious that the level of debt is unsustainable given
the time or value of the huge cost of the continuous upgrade, operation of the
systems and infrastructure dedicated to supporting USSD transactions of banks.
“In view of the foregoing, unless banks meet their debt
obligations, MNOs will disconnect all banks indebted to them for USSD services
rendered,” Adebayo said.
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