It’s interesting how a simple SMS, which costs N4 to send, would make the Minister of Communication, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Body of Bank CEOs, to sing discordant tunes. Call them the Three Musketeers of Policy Flip Flop and you won’t be wrong.
On October 19, 2019, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) company, MTN Nigeria, sent out an SMS to its over 61 million subscribers informing them of plans to begin charging them directly for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) access to banking services, beginning from October 21, 2019, and asking them to contact their individual banks for more information.
Unsurprisingly, as it is with many political appointees, the Minister of Communication, Isa Ibrahim Pantami, in his reaction, took to playing to the gallery. He claimed ignorance of the proposed charge and directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to ask MTN to suspend the plan, and for an investigation to be carried out. The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, would join in, saying the CBN and banks “will not allow this to happen.”
The third musketeer, the Body of Bank CEOs, followed with a statement riddled with so many contradictions, contradicting themselves, Emefiele and Pantami. On one hand they said they (banks) did not ask MTN to start charging customers, but went on to say how they’ve been engaging MTN to bring down the cost of USSD for over a year.
According to the statement, “MTN is the only Telco that is yet to implement end-user billing.” The statement admits that this is the standard practice for customer-initiated transactions. Which means that every other Telco has been implementing it, aside MTN. The question then is, why is the minister of communication, the CBN Governor, and banks opposing MTN.
For the unassuming mind, the crust of this revelation is easy to miss. However, from my little understanding of the banking sector, there is only one reason why MTN had for a long time refused to implement the end-user billing like other Telcos.
From the statements by the CBN, Body of Bank CEOs and MTN, minus the Minister of Communication, whom it appears either does not understand the workings of his ministry or was yet to be briefed; the first point you should note is that every other Telco, except MTN, has been charging their subscribers for USSD every time they use their banks services.
Also, there’s no time that the banks or CBN said, either explicitly or in passing, that the USSD charge was illegal. The CBN’s argument is that they’re looking for a way to see that the other Telcos (this is excluding MTN that has refused to burden its subscribers with end-user billings) reduce the USSD charge to the barest minimum, or stop it outrightly.
The reason why banks, in cohort with the CBN, “have engaged MTN over a period of more than one year to try and bring down the cost of USSD to aid financial inclusion”, is because all the while the banks were complaining of the cost of USSD, MTN, was transferring the cost from you the end-user to the banks. USSD charges can be grouped into two; one is corporate USSD for the banks and the other is what’s known as the end-user billing.
Presently, MTN offers USSD service to businesses as corporate reverse billing, which implies that when a USSD short code is dialled by bank customers, it is the corporate customer (in this case their bank) that is charged. For other Telcos, it is their subscribers that is charged. The banks’ grouse with MTN is that rather than charge you their (banks) customers, MTN had chosen not to burden you with the fees but to charge them (banks) instead.
So, you see, while the banks were after your money, MTN has had your best interest at heart from the start. The shocking part is, just as the banks have for years remained secretive about the exact charges they deduct from your accounts for every transaction, they’ve not been transparent about the whole USSD service brouhaha, even to the point of lying.
The Body of Bank CEOs outrightly lied in their statement that they were not the ones that told MTN to begin charging you for USSD. A leaked memo showed that they proposed to MTN “an orderly implementation of end-user billing for bank customers.” According to them, this would help the process of “aligning with the standard practice for USSD billing.”
The way in which the Three Musketeers of Policy Flip Flop went after MTN, one would think that MTN has the power to make a decision as important as this without the approval of the industry regulator, the NCC. But, that’s not the case. MTN’s plan to move the USSD charge from the banks to the customers was inspired by the NCCs new USSD regulation stipulated in a document titled “Determination of USSD Pricing” dated July 23, 2019.
While the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) have defended the Telcos as committed to Nigeria’s growth, the NCC which should normally have their backs have left MTN to the dogs. If like many others you’re wondering why the NCC is acting double faced, let’s just say that the commission, in cohort with the Three Musketeers of Policy Flip Flop are all looking for a scapegoat, and MTN appears the perfect fit.
PIUS OKORUWA
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