Banks to Deduct USSD Charges From Airtime, Not Accounts – NCC Orders
Wafricnews | June 4, 2025
Abuja - Starting June 3, 2025, Nigerian bank customers will begin paying for USSD transactions directly from their mobile airtime, following a new directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The development was confirmed by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in a customer notice sent out on Tuesday, stating that USSD service charges will no longer be withdrawn from bank accounts but will instead be billed from users’ airtime in line with NCC’s new End-User Billing Model.
“In line with the directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission, please be informed that effective June 3, 2025, charges for USSD banking services will no longer be deducted from your bank account,” UBA's message read.
“Going forward, these charges will be deducted directly from your mobile airtime balance. Each USSD session will attract a charge of ₦6.98 per 120 seconds, billed by your mobile network operator.”
Users will now receive a prompt requesting their consent before each session begins. Airtime will only be deducted once the user approves the charge and the bank is able to provide the requested service. Customers unwilling to continue under this model are free to stop using USSD banking services altogether.
UBA encouraged users to switch to alternative digital channels like mobile apps and internet banking for convenience.
A Debt Crisis Behind the Policy Shift
This policy change follows months of tension between Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) over unpaid USSD service fees, a dispute that has hovered around an estimated ₦250 billion debt.
In December 2024, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and NCC jointly instructed banks and telecoms to settle the matter urgently. However, by January 2025, the NCC escalated the issue by threatening to suspend USSD operations entirely and publish a list of debtor banks.
That threat led to an official order on January 15, instructing telcos to disconnect USSD codes of nine defaulting banks by January 27. Progress was eventually made, as MTN Nigeria disclosed in February that it had recovered ₦32 billion out of the ₦72 billion it was owed by banks.
The long-standing standoff has seen repeated warnings from telecom operators, who argued that the financial burden of USSD infrastructure was unsustainable without proper reimbursement.
With this new billing structure now placing the cost directly on users via airtime, the NCC hopes to resolve the dispute once and for all—while leaving customers with the final say on whether to continue using the USSD channel.
By WafricNews Desk.
By WafricNews Desk.
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