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MTN AGAIN: How The Company’s Greed Have Led Banks To Cut It Off From USSD Platform. – For Arbitrarily Reducing Commission!

The issue with MTN Airtime distribution and vending through the Banks is completely different from the Telco USSD services billing.

Telco USSD services billing is an industry-wide issue, both for the Telecoms and Banking industries, and it is about the determination of the best way to bill joint customers of the MNOs and Banks for the USSD service provided by the MNOs when it is used to Access Banking Services.

 

However, for this MTN Airtime sale through the Banks, on March 30 MTN acting unilaterally on its own, without consultation or negotiation with the Banks, who are part of its Airtime distribution chain, reduced the commission paid to the Banks for helping MTN sell its Airtime from 4% to 2.5%. This puts the Banks in a precarious and economic loss position, as the cost of fraud and airtime vending infrastructure maintenance by the banks outweigh the new commission rate imposed by MTN.  One will wonder why it is only MTN doing this and no other companies in the Telco industry.

 

To mitigate this risk of economic loss, all Banks, as an industry, requested MTN to maintain the status quo but all effort by the Banks to hold a discussion with MTN on this issue fell on deaf ears. To protect their businesses from the adverse economic impact, all Banks in the Financial industry decided to suspend the vending and distribution of MTN Airtime through their channels until such a time that a favorable rate is agreed with MTN.

 

Last night, some commercial banks have yanked off MTN From their USSD, airtime purchase, and other online services from the MTN network due to the disagreement between the financial institutions and the telecommunication company on the amount to be charged.

The implication is that you cannot make a purchase from any bank.

It was however reported by a national daily, that the bank Chief Executive Officers had at a recent meeting agreed to shut down the purchase of MTN services across all their channels beginning from 11 pm last night until further notice.

An attempt by SOCIETY REPORTERS to purchase airtime from GTBank last night showed that the commercial bank had removed MTN among the network its customers could purchase airtime from.

However, another Bank was still offering the service as of midnight.

A source close to the banks explained that the disagreement arose after MTN recently reduced the discount offered to banks on airtime sales

A top bank official, who pleaded to remain anonymous, said other banks are expected to comply with the decision of their CEOs from today.

He disclosed that over 60 percent of airtime vending by telcos presently was done electronically through the banks.

The CBN and the NCC, had in a recent communique issued at the end of a meeting to resolve the disagreement on USSD fee between the banks and telcos agree that with effect from March 16, 2021, USSD services for financial transactions conducted at banks and all CBN- licensed institutions would be a flat rate of N6.98k per transaction.

This replaced the previous per session billing structure, ensuring a much cheaper average cost for customers to ensure financial inclusion.

“To promote transparency, the new USSD charges will be collected on behalf of MNOs directly from customers’ bank accounts. “Banks shall not impose additional charges on customers for the use of USSD channel. “A settlement plan for outstanding payments incurred for USSD services previously rendered by the MNOs is being worked out by all parties in a bid to ensure that the matter is fully resolved,” the communiqué explained.

In a bid to respond to the entire story, MTN has sent out messages to its subscribers confirming that its banking services are not available. read the message below.

Dear Customer, our bank recharge channels are currently unavailable. Kindly recharge using physical cards. We apologise for the inconvenience. Thank you.

BY: SUNDAY ADEBAYO.

 

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