After four years of tensions, commercial banks and Nigeria's telecom operators have put an end to a dispute major involving a debt estimated at 300 billion naira, linked to Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services. A regulation that rule out a systemic risk for the country's digital financial ecosystem.

The announcement was made on Saturday by Gbenga Adebayo, president From the Association of Authorized Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), following an official visit to Aminu Maida, Executive Vice President of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)

According to Adebayo, this breakthrough is largely due to leadership from Maida, which inherited a crisis that has become critical for the sector. “USSD service debt, accumulated over four years and approaching 300 billion naira, represented a systemic risk for our industry and for the digital financial ecosystem,” he emphasized.

The resolution of the conflict was based on a commitment structured between the parties, a strengthened regulatory framework and a sustained cooperation between banking and telecom players. The intervention joint venture between the NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was revealed decisive, especially with the approval, last year, of a 50% increase USSD rates, facilitating repayments and helping to stabilize the system.

The agreement marks a strategic step for both sectors. It clarifies payment mechanisms and reinforces the reliability of USSD services, a key channel for financial inclusion in Nigeria, where a large Part of the population still depends on mobile services to access basic banking transactions.

For his part, Aminu Maida reaffirmed NCC's commitment to deepen cross-sectoral collaboration. He has assured that the reforms undertaken would be fully implemented and that the dialogue with stakeholders would be intensified in order to anticipate more effectively deal with future tensions.