By Gbenga Abulude
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has stopped financial services providers (FSPs) and network services providers from double billing Nigerians who use the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for financial transactions.
This directive is contained in the Determination of USSD Pricing (amended) statement released by the NCC and available in the NCC website, signed by Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, Director of Public Affairs of the Nigeria Communication commission.
The statement reads in part: The amendment was necessitated following a protracted dispute between Mobile Network Operators and Financial Institutions on the applicable charges for USSD services and the method of billing.
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“As a responsive and effective regulatory authority, the Commission recognises that its policies are not static and may be modified from time to time as circumstances demand.
“This is coming on the heels of a recent directive by the Hon. Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, regarding a review of the USSD pricing by all parties involved, following a presentation made by the Commission on the billing structure, determination of USSD pricing, current status and the way forward.”
“The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, in the interest of the consumers and other stakeholders, has revised the Determination previously issued by removing the Price Floor and the Cap to allow the Mobile Network Operators and the banks negotiate rates that will be mutually beneficial to all parties concerned.
“The NCC also determined that Mobile Network Operators must not charge the consumers directly for the use of USSD channels for financial services in the form of end-user-billing.”
The NCC is in charge issuing short codes (USSD Strings) to financial service providers in order to ease the provision of financial services over USSD channel.
The USSD strings are used by the customers of the FSPs to carry out digital financial service transactions, and the FSPs had demanded that network services providers should migrate from corporate billing to end-user billing, which resulted in a public outcry.
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This development will bring succour to Nigerians as many have complained of double charges for transactions made. In October last year, 2019, the NCC issued a statement that Nigerian telecom companies do not have the right to impose charges on bank customers for using the USSD channel for banking transactions.
This followed the backlash that greeted the move by the some Telcos to start charging some money every time bank customers transfer money or pay bills using USSD codes.
