Banks, Telcos Resolve N300bn USSD Debt Dispute

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) says the four-year N300 billion debt dispute with Nigerian banks over Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services has been resolved.

Chairman of ALTON, Mr Gbenga Adebayo, confirmed this on Thursday during an official visit to the Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Idris Olorunnimbe.

He lauded the intervention of the NCC, led by its Vice Chairman, Mr Aminu Maida, in bringing the long-standing dispute to a close.

“When Dr Maida assumed office, he inherited significant industry challenges,” Mr Adebayo said. “One of the most difficult was the USSD debt crisis, a debt burden that grew over four years to nearly N300 billion. It had become a systemic risk to our sector and the digital financial ecosystem.”

He praised the NCC helmsman for his leadership, structured engagement, and decisive coordination to see a resolution to the dispute.

“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 said, describing the resolution of the debt crisis as a milestone for the telecom and digital finance ecosystem, ensuring sustainability and predictability for operators and service providers.

Nigeria’s telco and banking sectors switched to an End-User Billing (EUB) model for USSD services in August 2025. Under the new system, customers are now charged directly from their mobile airtime instead of their bank accounts, with telcos deducting the fees.

The change ended a long-running dispute between telcos such as MTN and Airtel and commercial banks over unpaid USSD charges. By 2024, banks’ outstanding debts to operators had risen to between N250 billion and N300 billion.

The NCC, working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), introduced the EUB framework to standardise billing, improve transparency, and strengthen financial inclusion, especially for unbanked Nigerians who depend heavily on USSD services.