Alhaji Mohammed Babajika, director, Licensing and Authorisation at Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called for an amicable resolution to the discrepancies in USSD charges received by banks and payments made to telecom operators.
Prof Umar Danbatta, EVC, NCC
Babajika made the call during a webinar themed ‘Financial Inclusion in the New Normal, Leveraging Digital Payments’ hosted by CyberPay Limited.
He said there was a need to constitute a dispute resolution and arbitration channel to address issues emerging from mobile banking.
Babajika explained that after a cost-based study on USSD carried out by the commission and the telecoms operators, N1.63 per session was arrived at for USSD access.
He added that despite the low cost, banks were charging as high as N26.88 per session and paying telecoms operators non-proportionate prices.
“The NCC encouraged collaboration with the CBN by seeking a dispute resolution and arbitration channel to address issues that may arise as a result of convergence of finance and ICT,” he said.
The director added, “NCC has carried out an analysis on the cost of providing USSD services and it was found to be N1.63 per second for one session. It is a cost-based study.
“In other words, the cost to telcos is N1.63 whereas, the banks are charging N26.88 and considering the discrepancies, there is a need for the two parties to come together to agree on a workable sharing formula because these are some of the reports we get from our licensees.
“Banks cannot be making N26.88 per session and pay MNOs an amount that is not commensurate or agreeable as it is now.”
According to Babajika, the relationship between the banks and telecoms operators is not fair considering that the telcos own the subscribers, infrastructure and network frequency used by banks for mobile banking.
The telcos and Nigerian banks have been able to reach an agreement on charges for USSD access since October last year when a dispute broke out between both parties.