MTN, Banks Agree on USSD

MTN Nigeria and its banking partners have reached agreement on unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) channels services restriction.

The development is relief for Nigerian customers on the network locked out from accessing their bank accounts for airtime vending.

Following the intervention of Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, the two industry regulators, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the warring parties resolved to find a middle part to their disagreement.

At a virtual meeting held at the weekend by Mr. Karl Toriola, chief executive officer of MTN Nigeria; Mr. Herbert Wigwe, group CEO of Access Bank Plc, who is also the chairman of the Body of Bank CEOs in Nigeria; Mr. Segun Agbaje, Group CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, as well as Modupe Kadri, MTN Nigeria’s chief financial officer, they agreed to revert back to status quo of 4.5 per cent commission on USSD airtime.

MTN had on Thursday March 31, 2021 reduced the commission accruable to the value added service (VAS) aggregators and banks from 4.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent with effect from Friday April 1, 2021.

The sudden change in commission did not go down well with the aggregators and banks who immediately restricted the vending of airtime by MTN subscribers from banks accounts and USSD platform.

A letter signed by the MTN CEO, Toriola and addressed to Wigwe which was a follow-up on the virtual meeting stated that, “In an attempt to resolve the current USSD impasse, given the intervention of our regulators, we hereby agree that the banks revert back to the status quo of 4.5 per cent commission.

“However, the banks and MTN Nigeria Plc shall sit to agree on various options that will result in the costs on 6th of April 2021.” The letter was copied to the executive vice chairman/CEO of NCC.

Meanwhile, MTN said its new partnership with financial technology companies (Fintechs) as alternative channels for airtime vending will continue, noting that subscribers can  purchase MTN airtime from Flutterwave, JumiaPay, Kuda Carbon, BillnPay, myMTN Web, Mobile money agents and OPay.