Banks and telcos have been at odds over N120 billion in USSD debts, which the former has refused to pay due to technical problems.
Bank debt to telecom providers has increased by 275% from N32 billion in 2019 to N120 billion now. The Acting CBN Director also said that the CBN had proposed a direct billing approach to provide telecom operators complete visibility of USSD transactions and direct billing to their consumers.
He did, however, emphasize that the model’s practicality was still being worked out by the appropriate players.
Emefiele claims, the USSD has been very useful as a part of the mechanism for financial inclusion noting that he will not allow the services disrupted over the sharing of the income between banks and telecommunication companies.
“In light of this, the apex bank launched the SabiMONI e-Learning Platform to provide a knowledge base for financial literacy.