Telecommunications companies in Nigeria, acting on directives from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), are set to disconnect the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services of nine banks due to unpaid debts amounting to ₦160 billion. This debt has accumulated since 2019.
In a public notice, the NCC identified the affected banks and their USSD access codes. The banks are as follows:
- Fidelity Bank Plc (770)
- First City Monument Bank (FCMB) (329)
- Jaiz Bank Plc (773)
- Polaris Bank Limited (833)
- Sterling Bank Limited (822)
- United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) (919)
- Unity Bank Plc (7799)
- Wema Bank Plc (945)
- Zenith Bank Plc (966)
The disconnection is scheduled to take effect on Monday, January 27, 2025, unless the banks settle their outstanding debts.
The NCC has urged consumers to prepare for potential service disruptions, stating; “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.”
Initially, telecommunications companies had threatened to disconnect USSD services for 18 banks due to an accumulated debt of ₦200 billion. However, as of the latest update, nine of these banks have cleared their obligations, reducing the total debt to ₦160 billion.
