Bank customers, particularly, those in the rural or underserved areas, who rely majorly on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) codes for their basic services may experience service disruptions, come January 27, should nine banks fail to honour their financial obligations of N160 billion debt that has accumulated since 2019
Consequently, the customers may be denied services like checking of balances, transferring funds, and paying bills, even as the banking inclusion efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will be hindered.
Deposit money banks will also be affected, as they will need to find alternative channels to reach their customers.
In a notice on Wednesday, the NCC listed the banks and their USSD codes: Fidelity Bank Plc (770), First City Monument Bank (329), Jaiz Bank Plc (773), Polaris Bank Limited (833), Sterling Bank Limited (822), United Bank for Africa Plc (919), Unity Bank Plc (7799), Wema Bank Plc (945), and Zenith Bank Plc (966).
According to the NCC, telcos will disconnect the USSD access of these banks by Monday, January 27, 2025, if they do not pay their debt. “In fulfilment of its consumer protection mandate, the Commission wishes to inform consumers that they may be unable to access the USSD platform of the affected financial institutions from January 27, 2025,” the NCC said.
Earlier, telcos stated that they would temporarily cut off 18 banks’ USSD access because of their inability to settle a N200 billion debt. However, on Wednesday, it stated that nine of these banks have paid, while another nine are yet to pay. It noted that the total debt has reduced to N160 billion.
