By Prince Osuagwu
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN yesterday said the dispute between the telecommunications operators in the country and Deposit Money Banks, DMBs over earnings on the Unstructured services Data, USSD, was due to mere misunderstanding on what constitutes a successful transaction from a bank and telco perspectives.
CBN admitted it was aware of the protracted dispute and has been engaging all stakeholders to ensure amicable resolution.
Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Dr Isa AbdulMumin, said: “Indeed, it was due to the direct intervention of the CBN, particularly the CBN Governor, in March 2021, that a per session price of N6.98, including to settle any outstanding fees, was agreed between the banks and telcos.
“As far as we are aware, since 2021, DMBs continue to collect the USSD fees and remit same on behalf of the telcos based on that agreement. We understand the latest dispute concerns technical issues regarding definition of a successful transaction from a bank and telco perspective” he added.
However, the telcos say the banks are playing the ostrich, hiding on technical misunderstanding to abdicate their responsibilities and breach business agreement.
Chairman of Association of Licensed telecom Operators in Nigeria, umbrella body of the telcos, Engr Gbenga Adebayo said: “We are not backing down this time around. We don’t want to know what excuses they are giving for owing such a humongous amount, what would make sense is for them to pay. We have given the banks notice according to the terms of agreement we have with each bank and at the expiry of the notice, we will withdraw services fully, no going back” he added.
Adebayo explained that depending on the terms of agreement the telcos have with individual banks, some got two days notice, while some got one week and some others, one month notices. He added that the notice was to give them opportunity to organize themselves and settle their bills or risk total withdrawal of USSD services.
Recall that the telcos, at the weekend, got the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC approval to unplug their support on the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform to the banks.
The withdrawal means that bank customers will no longer access transactions done on the mobile phones like fund transfers through short codes, checking of bank details and account balances, among others which can even be accessed without data or internet connections.
The NCC approval followed growing debt which the telcos said has accumulated to over N120b.
Vanguard also gathered that to broker peace the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy had called a meeting between the NCC, telcos and the banks on Thursday, hoping to find a middle ground, but the banks and their regulator shunned the meeting.
However, in response to Vanguard’s inquiry, CBN explained that the dispute is basically a misunderstanding of the correct technical billing method.
AbdulMumin said: “USSD fees are charged by DMBs using an automated system which bills the customer for a successful transaction only after a banking service is consumed. For the Telcos, a successful transaction happens once the customer has dialed the USSD short-code which may not lead to the consummation of a banking service.
“Whilst such truncated transactions are not registered on the DMBs collection platform and thus not billed to bank customers, telcos expect the DMBs to charge customers once the short-code is dialed, whether or not a financial transaction is consummated.
“At a recent meeting of the DMBs and Telco representatives chaired by the Governor, CBN to resolve the issue, he acknowledged the telcos right to collect all legitimately earned fees due to them and to recover their cost. Following discussion the direct billing model was proposed as a lasting solution to the issue. This would enable telcos full visibility of USSD transactions and allow them to charge their customers directly. The feasibility of the model is still being worked out by the relevant stakeholders. “USSD is a critical channel leveraged primarily by the financially excluded, vulnerable and critical mass. The CBN remains committed to ensuring that the areas of contention related to collection of telco charges for USSD are resolved in the interest of the financial system and overall economy” he added
Source: Vanguard