THE NATION
he debt owed mobile network operators (MNOs) by deposit money banks (DMBs) over the use of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) has risen to N150 billion, it was gathered at the weekend.
Over the last one decade, the USSD– a technology dating back to the 1980s, has gained traction by customers without smartphones to access digital banking services. By just dialing a code, holders of feature phones carry out functions such as cash transfers, checking account balances and generating bank statements.
According to the leadership of MNOs, the debt has continued to rise because some of the banks, especially the big ones are not paying and aren’t willing to pay.
“I can tell you that debt has moved up to above N150 billion. We have the technology at our backend to track each transaction from point of origination to service delivery. So we are keeping the record of the debt. It is so sad that a debt as huge as this that could seriously impact the health of the industry is allowed to hang.
“The good news, however, is that the new leadership at the CBN is addressing the issue with sincerity now and hopefully we would see improvement in terms of payment. The previous leadership at the CBN had a lackadaisical attitude to the issue which emboldened the banks. The cash we are asking them to remit has been deducted by them from the bank customers,” he said on condition of anonymity.
“The good news, however, is that the new leadership at the CBN is addressing the issue with sincerity now and hopefully we would see improvement in terms of payment. The previous leadership at the CBN had a lackadaisical attitude to the issue which emboldened the banks. The cash we are asking them to remit has been deducted by them from the bank customers,” he said on condition of anonymity.
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