Business banks within the nation have now cleared 95% of the debt owed to telecom operators for Unstructured Supplementary Service Knowledge (USSD) companies.
The Chairman of the Affiliation of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Engr. Gbenga Adebayo disclosed this on Thursday throughout a digital chat with the media on the migration to end-user billing for USSD companies.
Based on Adebayo, the debt, which stood at about N180 billion as of January this 12 months, has now been cleared as much as 95%, with solely three banks left to pay up their debt.
Migration to end-user billing
Adebayo stated this paved the way in which for the migration to the end-user billing, as cost of the debt was one of many situations for the migration.
- The ALTON Chairman famous that the three remaining banks had negotiated for instalment cost, and so they now have the final instalment to be paid.
- Adebayo emphasised that the end-user billing means buyer prices for USSD companies will now be deducted from cellular airtime as a substitute of a {bank account}.
- Based on him, one of many main banks within the nation has been efficiently migrated to the system with preliminary optimistic trial outcomes, whereas others are within the technique of being migrated.
- He, nevertheless, famous that the migration just isn’t obligatory, as some banks might select to stay on the outdated company billing system.
“Those that might not wish to migrate to the brand new technique can proceed to make use of company billing as lengthy far they’ve paid all their debt and they won’t owe telecom operators as they’re deducting the cash from their prospects,” Adebayo stated.
The ALTON Chairman additionally assured that the telecom operators will, on their half, do every little thing to make sure that the transactions are seamless, however famous that failure of transactions may come from the banks.
“If there’s a failure from the community, the client won’t be billed, but when it’s from the {bank}, they are going to be billed as a result of it’s profitable from the operator’s aspect.
“I need to additionally make clear that if folks see a deduction from their {bank account} after they’ve been charged for his or her airtime, they need to go to the {bank} as a result of the {bank} just isn’t purported to cost them for the service, that’s double billing,” he stated.
Affect on prospects
Responding to a query on how the end-user billing will impression the {bank} prospects and telecom subscribers, the Chief Enterprise Enterprise Officer, MTN Nigeria, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, stated there isn’t a important impression or change other than the truth that they’ll now pay by airtime as a substitute of their {bank account}.
Clients will likely be paying the identical N6.98 per session (120 seconds), which they’ve been paying prior to now, however by their airtime.
She stated the telecom operators are eager on transparency in the entire course of, and so they have additionally been mandated by the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) to supply month-to-month efficiency statistics and standardized error messaging for USSD transactions.
Backstory
The telecom operators had on Wednesday, June 18, introduced the graduation of the end-user billing in keeping with a brand new directive from the NCC.
- Based on ALTON, the migration to end-user billing follows the Dedication of USSD Pricing and Companies issued by the NCC, which was developed in collaboration with the Central {Bank} of Nigeria (CBN) and different key stakeholders.
- ALTON stated the migration goals to create a extra sustainable, clear, and customer-friendly framework for delivering USSD companies, particularly in Nigeria’s rising digital {financial} panorama.