The tripartite intervention of the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NNC) in amicable resolution of the rift between the banks and the mobile network operators (MNOs) over the use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) collapsed because of the intransigence of the chief executive officers of the banks, it was gathered at the weekend.

The MNOs had said it would begin a phased withdrawal of USSD services to the banks over a N42billion debt owed by the banks for access charges for the use of the telecoms infrastructure.

A source in the industry said the banks had, with the tacit approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, God win Emefiele, constituted themselves into a huge cartel that were too powerful to either take instructions from anybody or give room to common sense analysis of the issues involved in the matter.

A letter written by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Ibrahim Pantami, seemed to have confirmed this..

The letter with reference number:  HMCDE/039/CBN/Vol1 dated March 2021 addressed to the CBN Governor en entitled: “Implementation of USSD Determination Issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) read:

“You will recall the Determination on USSD Pricing issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on 23 July, 2019 as well as the subsequent amendment issued 24 July 2020.

“The determination was issued in order to address the lingering matter of the impasse in the rendering of USSD services to banks and other financial institutions by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). the determination sought to:  establish a cost-based premise for commercial negotiations between all parties; prohibit the application of an end user billing pricing model and restate the existing Directive on corporate user billing; provide a glide path for implementation of such that it would not apply retroactively; establish the role of the NCC as mediator between parties where disputes arise from commercial negotiations.

“You will recall that these stipulations were issued in good faith, borne out of multi-stakeholder engagement with the objective of ensuring service continuity, protect consumers, provide an empirical basis for pricing and generally guarantee the interests of all parties in the use of USSD service.

“I wish to bring to attention that it disheartening that those noble objectives are not realisable. This is due to the fact that not only have commercial banks failed to abide by the terms of the USSD Determination, but also the lingering incidence of indebtedness to MNOs for the services they rendered still persist. This situation is on the rise to the detriment of the MNOs and indeed the communication industry as a whole.

“In the circumstances, I am constrained to direct the NCC to ensure immediate compliance with the terms of the Determination, failing which MNOs will be directed to discontinue the rendering of USSD service to commercial banks with effect from 9 March, 2021.

“Given the far-reaching implications of such a development, I trust that you will use your good offices to facilitate compliance and ensure that all parties act in good faith.

But the President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Ikechuckwu Nnamani, said talks had not collapsed. He said talks were still ongoing despite the commencement of phased withdrawal of USSD services to banks.

Chairman, Association Licensed Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, who had signed the statement announcing the service withdrawal to the banks said the MNOs were compelled by the prevailing circumstance to take the decision.

In an interview, he said: “It’s unfortunate that we came to a point like this. It’s a step that circumstances forced us to take, it’s not something that we are not very happy about but that is what it is. That huge debt is capable of crippling the entire industry if care is not taken.”

He lamented that despite the intervention of Pantami and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NCC, Prof Garba Danbatta, the matter remained unresolved.

“The matter remained unresolved, there’s no traction on the issue. At some point, the minister intervened himself we are aware of correspondence to the CBN. It is an issue that has been with us and it’s quite unfortunate.

“The banks insisted that the telcos should bill the end users and we said no, it will amount to double billing if you deduct money from their account for delivering USSD service into your system, and we again charge them for the same service but the banks said no, this is the only option that they want,” he said, adding that the MNOs do not know what they are charging the subscribers and the banks are not willing to share the information with the telcos.

According to him, when the services are withdrawn, all the USSD code that are used for fund transfers will stop working, the one used for balance enquiry will not work, and it will also have an impact on those who rely on these codes for transaction to access the platform of the bank.