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About 20 years ago, recharge card sellers were the sole source of airtime. To make this possible, the dealers had to rent a store, purchase recharge card pins

Advertisement It was in October 2019 that Nigerian consumers first became aware of the dispute between Nigerian banks and telco providers over who pays for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services customers enjoyed. This must-have sounded strange to the customers seeing as they were already being charged for the service.  The Association of Licensed Telecommunications of Nigeria (ALTON) had complained about the undue silence of key stakeholders in resolving the crisis of the USSD service between the banks and the telcos in Nigeria and threatened then to shut down the platforms...

The telco had advised subscribers to seek alternative means of recharging their phones. “Dear Customer, our bank recharge channels are currently unavailable. Kindly recharge using physical cards. We apologise for the inconvenience. Thank you,” one message read. Another message read: “Please be informed that some of MyCustomers may not be able to purchase airtime and data recharges via banks including MOD and myMTN App. “Please pacify MyCustomers and educate them to use MTNTopit, MoMo channels, as well as the debit card options on MOD or myMTN App.” However, the Minister, in a Twitte...

Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega Share this article In October 2019, MTN Nigeria announced that it would begin charging a ₦4 fee every time customers use Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) to make bank transactions. It was another chapter in a long drawn out squabble between banks and telcos over who should pay for USSD. Initially the plan was for banks to pay those charges which telcos say are around ₦12 for one session and then remit it in bulk to the telcos. The banks balked at that plan and asked telcos to charge customers directly. Eventually, Nigeria’s Communication Com...