The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has set January 27,2025 as deadline for the disconnection of nine banks from the assigned Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes usage over unpaid invoice to Mobile Network Operators (MNO).
The Commission disclosed this on Wednesday via a public notice signed by its spokesperson, Reuben Muoka in Abuja.
According to the commission, the affected financial institutions and impacted USSD codes are; Fidelity Bank (770), First City Monument Bank (329), Jaiz Bank (773), Polaris Bank Limited (833), Sterling Bank Limited (832), United Bank for Africa (919), Unity Bank (7799), Wema Bank (945), and Zenith Bank (966).
The telecom regulator added it will recover the codes and may reassign it to other applicants in accordance with the applicable instrument.
The notice reads in part,“By the information made available to the commission as of the close of business on Tuesday, 14th January 2025, of a total of 18 financial institutions, the nine institutions listed below have failed to comply significantly with the directives in the Second Joint Circular of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the commission dated December 20, 2024, for the settlement of outstanding invoices due to MNOS, some since 2020.
“In fulfilment of its consumer protection mandate, the commission wishes to inform consumers that they may be unable to access the USSD platform of the affected financial institutions from January 27, 2025,” the Commission said
