By ADEEYEMI ADEPETUN

Financial Institutions, especially the banks, currently owe telecommunications operators about N17 billion in unpaid Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) rendered by them on the service providers network platforms.

This was made known on Thursday by the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, during a webinar organised by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

Danbatta explained that the N17 billion accrued since the period the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami directed mobile network operators (MNOs) to stop charging consumers the N4 per 20 seconds USSD charges.

Pantami gave the order in October 2019, following serious public outcries on the matter in the country. (The Guardian)