Telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria has finally implemented a N6.93 service fee for all USSD transactions carried out on it’s network.
This is evident as the Telco now informs every subscriber of the fee before proceeding with the transaction, findings by Exclusive Africa reveals.
Our investigation shows that every customer on the MTN network has to accept the fee charge before they can proceed to using the USSD service. A copy of the notification received by MTN subscribers is shown below.
The battle of who pays off the accumulated USSD service charge which as at March stands at N42bn has been a lingering issue between Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and banks.
Recall that operators under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) had withdrawn provision of the service on March 13th as they insisted bank’s must pay off these debt. Banks deduct this same charges from their customers accounts so why are they not remitting same, the bank’s have argued.
The likes of MTN had subsequently changed tactics by partnering with Fintechs such as Flutterwave, Paga and others in other to fulfil customer’s request for this service.
The N6.93 charge had been agreed upon at a joint stakeholders meeting convened by the NCC and the CBN held earlier in March where a joint statement was issued that effective March 16, 2021, USSD Services for financial transactions conducted at DMBs and all CBN licensed institutions will be charged at a flat fee if N6.98 per transaction.
