Nigerian Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) have commenced the implementation of the approved new pricing model for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) short code services for transacting mobile banking services.
All the banks involved in USSD transaction are now informing their customers that the new fee of N6.98 kobo has taken effect from today once a customer uses the USSD protocol to make payment/transfer.
Also, one of Nigeria’s biggest lenders, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) this afternoon sent out an email to their customer titled “Important Update on USSD Transactions”. The statement reads, “Please be informed that you are now required to pay a fee of N6.98 to your mobile network provider for every banking transaction carried out on all USSD banking platforms.
“This means that when you send money to anyone using USSD, a fee of N6.98 will be charged to your bank account, which is in turn remitted in full by your Bank, to your mobile network provider. Please note that Airtime and Data purchases via USSD are exempt from this charge on USSD platforms.”
It should be recalled that on March 16th, 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) released a new pricing model for USSD short code services.
A joint statement signed by Osita Nwanisobi, Head, Corporate Services, CBN and Dr. Ike Adinde, Director, Public Affairs, NCC, then stated that “Effective March 16th, 2021, USSD services for financial transactions conducted at DMBs and all CBN – licensed institutions will be charged at a flat fee of N6.98k per transaction.
Recall that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) have had protracted disagreements concerning the appropriate USSD pricing model for financial transactions. This resulted in the accumulation of outstanding fees to the tune of N42 billion for USSD services rendered leading to threat of service withdrawal by the MNOs.
According to the agreements reached, USSD services for financial transactions conducted at DMBs and all CBN – licensed institutions would be charged at a flat fee of N6.98k per transaction, thus replacing the old per session billing structure, ensuring a much cheaper average cost for customers to enhance financial inclusion. This approach, the two regulators said, was transparent and would ensure the amount remains the same, regardless of the number of sessions per transaction.
SiliconNigeria had exclusively on the morning of March 16, 2021 reported that:
- “That End-User Billing would be scrapped and replaced with Corporate Billing for USSD.
- It was also agreed that session charging be scrapped for Transaction cost charging.
- They agreed on N1.63k floor price and N4.50 price cap while a flat fee of N6.98k will be for the transaction.
- Banks will now charge customers for the USSD transaction doing on their accounts and settle the telecom operators.”