USSD CHARGES: Airtel Nigeria Bills N5 For Every 20 Seconds Spent Using Bank USSD

Telecommunication giant, Airtel Nigeria has confirmed that it bills its customers N5 for every 20 seconds spent using a USSD code for bank transaction.

A few days after the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had ordered MTN Nigeria Communication Plc to stop charging customers N4 per minute for USSD transactions.

This news immediately wet viral on Monday when MTN claimed that the body of Nigerian Bank Chief Executive Officers, CEOs, requested that customers should be charged for USSD transactions.

To inform customers, MTN had sent a message that effective October 21, 2019, N4 will be charged on every 20 seconds spent while using USSD access to banking services.

“Yello, Please note that from Oct 21, we will charge N4 per 20 seconds for USSD access to banking services. Thank you,” the message had read.

It has now been confirmed that Airtel Nigeria has been charging its customers for using bank USSDs.

According to Daily Post, Airtel had on Wednesday billed a customer (name withheld) N15 for carrying out a transaction using the Wema Bank *945#. Contacted, an Airtel customer care agent, told our correspondent in a message that the organisation charges N5 for every 20 second spent using USSD. The customer care agent, who identified herself simply as Tope said,

“Dear customer, please be informed that on the (Airtel) network, you will be billed N5 for every 20 seconds spent while carrying out an USSD bank transaction. Thank you.”