The Body of Bank CEOs has applauded the recent decision by the National Communications Commission (NCC) to suspend forthwith the end-user billing for unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) services.
A statement issued by bank CEOs and made available to Sunrise News praised the Federal Government for championing the action on behalf of Nigerians.
The statement added: “When presented with two options by the telecommunications companies – corporate billing versus end-user billing – banks supported the standard practice for a relationship between a telecommunications company and their subscribers. We proposed the same method they charge for voice calls, SMS and data. We then asked to work with the telecommunications companies to bring the cost of their USSD service down for Nigerians. We were therefore very surprised at the announcements from MTN on the 19th and 20th October.”
The banks’ CEOs said with the suspension, Nigerians would now be able to continue to access bank’s services for free using the USSD.
“Since banks cannot reasonably be expected to charge for the service of another industry, over which they have no control of price, quality and security, we are delighted that consumers will now be able to access their bank for free, using USSD,” they claimed adding that it would also boost the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) where, through Bank’s subsidizing the USSD, 20m Nigerians have been added to the financial system.
The Banks, supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria, have long advocated the designation of USSD services as a critical national asset to enable such free access to USSD. Indeed, in countries like India, free access to USSD channels have long been established to successfully drive financial inclusion.
“We look forward to working with the telecommunications industry to achieve the objectives of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy. We believe that with this new development, we will achieve 80% financial inclusion in 2020,” the banks’ chief executives added.
