Telecommunication firms have issued fresh threats to withdraw Unstructured Supplementary Service Data service if banks do not pay their N120bn debt owed to them.
According to the telcos, the issue has dragged on for too long and a court resolution might be needed since the banks do not seem to be ready to clear the debt. The Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, disclosed this over the weekend while speaking to journalists.
This new revelation is coming despite a recent resolution by the telcos and banks to settle the USSD issue that has been lingering for about four years.
He disclosed that in a recent with the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, recently, the minister was sympathetic to the plight of the telcos and stressed that if parties behaved as responsibly as they should, the matter wouldn’t have reached this level.
Earlier in a document shared with correspondents telcos had revealed that the minister has hinted that banks should not expect free service as there are costs to every service rendered.
The immediate past Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, noted that the USSD debt was slowing down financial inclusion in the country.
