CBN, NCC against introduction of charges on mobile banking transactions by MTN

The Nigeria banking regulator Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the telecoms industry regulator Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have called for the suspension of data access charges being proposed by MTN Nigeria on online banking transactions.

MTN Nigeria in a text message to its subscribers over the weekend had said it will charge 4 naira per 20 seconds for the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) access tp banking service as from October 21, this year.

“Yello, please note that from October 21, we will charge N4 per 20 seconds for the USSD access to banking services. Thank you,” the text message received by many subscribers of the local unit of South Africa’s telecom firm read.

Godwin Emefiele said the planned charges would discourage the CBN’s financial inclusion drive.

Emefiele CBN governor said he was opposed to the charges because the issue of USSD was not an additional cost to the operations of the telecoms firm.

“About five months ago, I held a meeting with some telecom companies as well as the leading banks in Nigeria and the issue of USSD came up.

“At that time, we came to the conclusion that the use of USSD is a sunk cost, which is not an additional cost on the infrastructure of the telecom companies. But the telecoms companies disagreed with us and said it is an additional investment and they needed to impose it.”

According to the governor, “I appealed to them that they should review it downwards and they refused. I understand that three or four weeks ago, rather than reduce it, they went ahead to increase it by 300 percent.

“I opposed it and I have told the banks that we will not allow this to happen; the banks gave this business to the telecoms companies, and I leave the banks and the telecom companies to engage.”

Emefiele said he had instructed the banks to move their business to any telecom company that would be ready to charge the lowest service rate, if not zero cost.

“And that’s where we stand and we must achieve it,” he added.

Also, Minister of Communications, Isa Pantami has directed the NCC to ensure the suspension of the plan by MTN.

The directive followed the announcement by the telco that it would start charging its subscribers for USSD access to banking services on October 21.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Pantami said the ministry was unaware of the development and requested a proper briefing on the matter.

“The attention of the Federal Ministry of Communications has been drawn to the viral text message allegedly sent by the mobile network operator MTN Nigeria and other mobile operators notifying subscribers of a N4:00 charge per 20 seconds on the USSD access to banking services from the 21st of October 2019.”

“The office of the Honourable Minister of Communications, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, is unaware of this development and has hereby directed the sector regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, to ensure the operator suspends such plans until the minister is fully and properly briefed.”