MTN Agrees to Revert USSD Payment to Banks after Faceoff
- The telecommunications company says it will begin to pay banks at old USSD fee after meeting
- MTN Nigeria says there's still a need to agree on some various options regarding payment of the commission
- The telco will revert to a 4.5% commission after the banks banned the network providers customers
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MTN Nigeria has given in to Nigerian banks' request following a meeting involving the bankers and the network provider. The meeting held on Tuesday, April 6, 2021, and continued on Wednesday.
At the meeting held on Tuesday, the telecommunications company agreed to revert the USSD commission back. Legit.ng had previously reported that the banks blocked MTN subscribers from accessing their digital channels.
The commission was reduced from 3.5% to 2.5% as banks and aggregators share N4 from every N100 airtime purchased by the telco's customers. MTN has now decided to increase banks share to 4.5%.
This was stated in a letter sent by the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, to the lenders after the meeting, however, the head of the telco said there are still various options that need to be agreed on.
Source: UGC
"In an attempt to resolve the current USSD recharge impasse, given the intervention from our regulators, we hereby agree that the banks revert to the status of 4.5 per cent commission.
"However, the banks and MTN Communications Nigeria Plc shall sit to agree on various options that will result in the reduction in the costs on April 6, 2021.” Toriola said
The meeting between the banks and the network providers was attended by Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ibrahim Pantami, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Umar Garba Danbatta.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Dangote Cement recorded a loss in its market value worth N420 billion. The loss reduced the company's market capitalisation to N3.6 trillion in March 2021.
This occurred between January and March 2021. Dangote Cement had ended the first month with N4.02 trillion but dropped to N3.7 trillion in February before losing N100 billion more.
The loss occurred simultaneously with the company's share price which depreciated by N29.9kobo per share. The stock value declined from N244.50kobo per share to N215 per share.
Source: Legit.ng
