The Central Bank of Nigeria and Nigerian Communications Commission issued a joint statement on pricing of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Services
Recent events have shown that the controversy between the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) is not going away anytime soon. What are these issues?
- MNOs and DMBs have significant differences on the price determination template for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Services in Nigeria;
- Uncertainty as to whether the financial institutions or their users should pay for the USSD Services; and
- Lack of consensus between the regulators; the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Communications Commission.
USSD is a telecommunication service that allows mobile phone users to interact with a remote application from their device in real-time. MNOs facilitate interoperability between the banks’ network and customers’ devices. So, is there a cost component for the MNOs in facilitating interoperability?
The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and MNOs hold the position that there is a cost component for the MNOs in its provision of USSD which relies on specific or upscaling of infrastructure.
