Mobile operators in Nigeria including MTN Group and Airtel Africa will stop providing dedicated text message services to banks until the lenders pay ₦120-billion (US$262 million) in arrears.
The operators will disconnect USSD services based on their contracts with the lenders, Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria said in a telephone interview on Monday. Some banks will be disconnected as early as today, he said.
The service is crucial for the poor in Africa’s most populous nation, where as many as 40% don’t have bank accounts. USSD is used for financial transactions such as transfers, bill payments and airtime recharges.
For two years, Nigeria’s mobile network operators and banks haven’t been able to agree on the appropriate USSD pricing model, the mode of collection and liability for unremitted fees from the lenders.
The telecommunications operators say arrears have risen from ₦42-billion in 2021. The industry regulator and the Central Bank of Nigeria intervened in the dispute that year leading to an agreement for a flat fee of ₦6.98/transaction.
“We have engaged them severally but they refuse to do anything,” Adebayo said. “If we withdraw the service and they feel the impact, maybe they will come to find a way to resolve it.”
Herbert Wigwe, CEO for Access Holdings and head of the team engaging with the telecoms operators, couldn’t be reached for comment.
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Wigwe in 2021 refuted claims that banks owed arrears to mobile-phone companies.
