The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued a new directive mandating Deposit Money Banks to deduct charges for USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) transactions directly from customers’ mobile airtime, rather than debiting their bank accounts.
The new billing arrangement was announced by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in a message to its customers, stating that the policy will take effect from June 3, 2025.
Under the revised structure, users will be charged N6.98 for every 120 seconds of a USSD session, with deductions made by the mobile network operator from the customer’s airtime. Before any deduction is made, customers will receive a prompt requesting their consent at the beginning of each session.
The directive is aimed at resolving the protracted dispute between commercial banks and telecommunications providers over USSD service payments. In December 2024, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the NCC jointly instructed both parties to find a solution to the lingering N250 billion debt linked to USSD transactions.
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