The Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC) has directed Deposit Money Banks to stop deducting charges for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD )transactions directly from customers’ accounts.
NCC said the charges should rather be deducted directly from mobile airtime balance.
The directive was contained in an email from the United Bank of Africa ( UBA) to their customers on Tuesday.
TheFact Daily notes that the telecom regulator maybe using this directive to address the USSD payment conflict between Mobile Network Operators and commercial banks. However the bank said the directive takes effect from Tuesday, June 3.
The statement said , “In line with the directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), please be informed that effective June 3, 2025, charges for USSD banking services will no longer be deducted from your bank account.
“Going forward, these charges will be deducted directly from your mobile airtime balance in accordance with the NCC’s End-User Billing (EUB) model.
“Under this new billing structure, each USSD session will attract a charge of ₦6.98 per 120 seconds, which will be billed by your mobile network operator.
“You will receive a consent prompt at the start of each session, and airtime will only be deducted upon your confirmation and availability of the bank to fulfil this service.
“If you do not wish to continue using USSD banking under this new model, you may choose to discontinue use of the USSD channel.”
The bank said customers can continue using other digital banking options and internet banking platform for convenience
