Commercial banks and telecommunications operators have finally resolved a four-year dispute over unpaid Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) fees after the settlement of nearly ₦300 billion in outstanding obligations, easing a crisis that had threatened Nigeria’s digital financial ecosystem.
The resolution was disclosed by Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), during a visit to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Adebayo said the accumulated debt, which built up over four years, had posed a systemic risk to telecommunications operators, mobile network infrastructure, and the broader digital payments system.
He credited Aminu Maida, executive vice-chairman of the NCC, with providing the regulatory leadership that led to the full settlement and the successful transition to a new billing framework.
“When Dr Maida assumed office, he inherited significant industry challenges.
“One of the most difficult was the USSD debt crisis — a debt burden that grew over four years to nearly ₦300 billion. It had become a systemic risk to our sector and the digital financial ecosystem,” Adebayo said
According to him, coordinated regulatory intervention helped bring the prolonged dispute to an end.
“Through firm leadership, structured engagement and decisive coordination, Dr Maida and his team resolved this issue.
“Today, there is no outstanding USSD debt. The ecosystem has fully migrated to end-user billing. What was once a looming crisis has been converted into a sustainable framework,” he added.
The dispute between banks and telecom operators dates back several years, with mobile network operators repeatedly warning that they could withdraw USSD services due to mounting unpaid fees.
In 2019, telecom operators announced they could no longer provide USSD services at no cost and proposed to retain ₦4.50 per 20 seconds from charges paid by customers to banks. Banks opposed the proposal, arguing it would increase costs by as much as 450 per cent.
On March 12, 2021, telecom operators threatened to suspend USSD services over ₦42 billion in unpaid fees — a move later halted by Isa Pantami, then minister of communications and digital economy.
Following negotiations, banks and mobile network operators agreed on March 16, 2021, to charge customers ₦6.98 per USSD transaction.
Despite the agreement, the debt continued to rise. By November 2022, ALTON said unpaid USSD obligations had reached about ₦80 billion. By November 2023, telecom operators put the figure at ₦200 billion, up from ₦120 billion in May of that year.
At the height of the crisis in 2024, outstanding liabilities were estimated at between ₦250 billion and ₦300 billion, prompting regulatory intervention by the NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The interventions culminated in the introduction of an End-User Billing (EUB) framework, under which banks now deduct USSD transaction fees directly from customers’ mobile airtime.
Migration to the new billing structure took place between June 3 and June 18, 2025, following partial repayments of ₦171 billion by banks.
