Nigeria’s banks and telcos have finally buried a four-year fight over nearly ₦300 billion ($223 million) in unpaid USSD fees. The Association of Licenced Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the union body for telecom firms in the country, said the debt has now been fully cleared, closing what its chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, described as a “systemic risk” to both the telecom sector and Nigeria’s digital finance ecosystem.
Adebayo credited the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms regulator, under Executive Vice Chairman Dr. Aminu Maida, whose intervention forced structured negotiations and compliance.
Catch up: The standoff had simmered for years. In December 2024, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and NCC ordered banks to pay ₦212.5 billion ($158.2 million)—85% of a ₦250 billion ($186 million) verified debt—by year-end, after repeated delays.
Banks argued USSD fees were opaque and unfair. GTCO’s Segun Agbaje memorably said,: “If you want to charge ₦20, go ahead. But collect it yourself. Don’t come to us.” The late Herbert Wigwe, former Access Bank CEO, also questioned the pricing of what many bankers saw as aging infrastructure.
State of play: Beyond repayment, regulators demanded a redesign of the system. They pushed hard, tying compliance to a transition to End-User Billing (EUB), where telecom firms directly deduct USSD charges from customers’ airtime balances. This move, now live, removes banks from the billing chain and likely prevents another debt pile-up.
Yet, with EUB, telecoms have regained a predictable cash flow stream; banks exit a bruising regulatory fight; and customers now see—and directly bear—the cost of USSD convenience.
