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CBN, NCC Mandate Banks, Telcos to Resolve N250bn Debt Dispute in Six Months
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have issued a joint directive to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to settle a protracted N250 billion debt dispute over Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services within six months.
The directive, contained in a circular titled “2nd Joint Circular of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Communications Commission on the Resolution of the USSD Debt Issue Between Deposit Money Banks and Mobile Network Operators”, was signed by Oladimeji Taiwo, Acting Director of Payments System Management at CBN, and Chizua Whyte, Head of Legal and Regulatory Services at NCC.
As part of the resolution plan, commercial banks are required to pay 60% of all outstanding pre-API invoices as full settlement. Payment plans, whether lump sum or instalments, must be agreed upon by January 2, 2025, with instalments to be completed by July 2, 2025.
For post-API invoices, 85% must be cleared by December 31, 2024, and all future invoices must be paid within one month of issuance.
Both regulators have also directed an immediate halt to all legal actions related to the USSD debt dispute. Non-compliance with these directives will attract sanctions.
The circular further outlined the adoption of a “10-second rule” for USSD billing, exempting sessions under 10 seconds from charges. Additionally, compliant DMBs using prepaid billing systems may transition to End-User Billing (EUB), provided regulatory requirements are met.
To ensure transparency, the regulators plan to roll out public enlightenment initiatives on the EUB transition to improve customer experience in the financial and telecom sectors.