Bank Chiefs Disowns MTN Over USSD Charges On Mobile Banking Transactions

Nigerian bank chief executives have disowned claimed by the local unit of South Africa's telecoms firm, MTN Nigeria that it got the backing of commercial lenders to impose new charges of the use of mobile banking transactions.

MTN had on Sunday announced a four naira charge for every 20 seconds of using USSD bank codes, claiming it took the decision as requested by the banks.
“Yello, as requested by your bank, from Oct. 21, we will start charging you directly for USSD access to banking services. Please contact your bank for more information,” the company said in a text message.
Both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele and Minister of Communications, Isa Pantami have called for the suspension of the new charges as it ran contrary to the policy of financial inclusion.
The Body of Bank CEOs said in a statement that MTN’s claim the banks called for the charges was untrue.
“The banks did not ask MTN to start charging customers as contained in the text message. The decision on whether, and what amount, to charge a customer for assessing USSD is entirely that of the telco company, in the same way a customer is billed for calls, SMS and data.”
“MTN is the only company that is yet to implement end-user billing which is the standard practice for customer-initiated transactions. This is despite the fact that the banks, working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), have engaged MTN over a period of more than one year to try and bring down the cost of USSD to aid financial inclusion,” the CEOs said in a statement.
The government’s earlier statement by the Ministry of Communications said on Sunday, “The office of the Honourable Minister of Communications Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami FNCS, FBCS, FIIM is unaware of this development and has hereby directed the sector regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) ensures the operator suspends such plans until the Honourable Minister is fully and properly briefed.”
Separately, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also opposed plans by MTN to apply the USSD charge.
The governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, gave the bank’s position at a news briefing by the Nigerian delegation to the just-concluded World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, in Washington on Sunday, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.