Finally, the Telecom giant MTN Nigeria and its banking partners have reached agreement on unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)channels services restriction.
The development is relief for Nigerian customers on the network locked out from accessing their bank accounts for airtime vending.
Following the intervention of Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, the two industry regulators, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the warring parties resolved to find a middle part to their disagreement.
At a virtual meeting held at the weekend by Mr. Karl Toriola, chief executive officer of MTN Nigeria; Mr. Herbert Wigwe, group CEO of Access Bank Plc, who is also the chairman of the Body of Bank CEOs in Nigeria; Mr. Segun Agbaje, Group CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, as well as Modupe Kadri, MTN Nigeria’s chief financial officer, they agreed to revert back to status quo of 4.5 per cent commission on USSD airtime.
MTN had on Thursday March 31, 2021 reduced the commission accruable to the value added service (VAS) aggregators and banks from 4.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent with effect from Friday April 1, 2021.
