The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has instructed telecommunications companies (telcos) to disconnect the USSD codes of nine banks due to unpaid debts.
In a statement signed by Reuben Muoka, the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, the commission announced that the disconnection will take effect on January 27, 2025, if the banks fail to settle their outstanding USSD debts by that date.
“The Nigerian Communications Commission hereby notifies the public that it is authorizing Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to disconnect the USSD codes assigned to financial institutions that have not cleared their outstanding invoices by Monday, January 27, 2025,” the statement read.
“The Commission will recover these codes and may reassign them to other applicants as per the relevant guidelines,” it continued.
To protect consumers, the NCC also informed the public that from January 27, 2025, users may be unable to access the USSD platforms of the affected banks.
As of January 14, 2025, out of 18 financial institutions, nine had not complied with the directives outlined in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and NCC’s joint circular issued on December 20, 2024, regarding the settlement of outstanding debts to telcos. Some of these debts have been pending since 2020.
The banks’ failure to meet the conditions in the CBN-NCC Joint Circular means they are unable to meet the Good Standing criteria required for the renewal of their USSD codes. These financial institutions have been formally notified of the need for prompt compliance, as per the NCC’s Guidelines on Short Code Operation in Nigeria, 2023.
In March 2021, telcos had threatened to suspend USSD services over a debt of N42 billion accumulated by banks (up from N32 billion in 2019), but the move was halted by Isa Pantami, the former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.
