Beginning Wednesday, June 18, 2025, telecom users in Nigeria will be billed directly by their mobile network providers for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services. Damian Udeh, the Publicity Secretary, and Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), signed the statement.
The move, according to Adebayo, is consistent with the USSD price and service determination made by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in cooperation with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other stakeholders.
According to the head of ALTON, the new billing model would enable mobile network providers to bill users directly for USSD sessions. The charges will be subtracted from the airtime balance at a rate of N6.98 every 120 seconds.
He explained that only successful sessions would result in invoicing, and that clients would be prompted to opt in and confirm the fee before it was deducted.
Adebayo promised that clients would be able to continue using bank USSD codes as long as they had sufficient airtime, and that the move would not affect the availability or operation of USSD banking services.
"Access to financial services is greatly increased by USSD services, especially for underbanked and unbanked populations." However, long-running conflicts over unpaid costs, service outages, and customer confusion arose from the prior corporate billing model, in which telecom operators billed banks directly.
The End-User Billing (EUB) model was introduced by the NCC in 2025 to address these issues, enabling mobile network providers to bill users directly for USSD sessions.
"The CBN and NCC have stipulated that only banks that meet certain regulatory and operational conditions are permitted to migrate to achieve the implementation of the EUB model," he said.
Customers experiencing problems with access should contact their mobile network operators, while those who have problems with transactions should contact their banks.
The change may streamline billing processes for users, and could also impose high costs on consumers who rely on these services for essential transactions.