👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Day by day – Koko is up on the market

Nigeria’s banks and telcos have lastly buried a four-year combat over almost ₦300 billion ($223 million) in unpaid USSD charges. The Affiliation of Licenced Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the union physique for telecom companies within the nation, stated the debt has now been absolutely cleared, closing what its chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, described as a “systemic danger” to each the telecom sector and Nigeria’s digital finance ecosystem. 

Adebayo credited the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC), the telecoms regulator, below Govt Vice Chairman Dr. Aminu Maida, whose intervention pressured structured negotiations and compliance.

Catch up: The standoff had simmered for years. In December 2024, the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN) and NCC ordered banks to pay ₦212.5 billion ($158.2 million)—85% of a ₦250 billion ($186 million) verified debt—by year-end, after repeated delays. 

Banks argued USSD charges had been opaque and unfair. GTCO’s Segun Agbaje memorably stated,: “If you wish to cost ₦20, go forward. However acquire it your self. Don’t come to us.” The late Herbert Wigwe, former Entry Financial institution CEO, additionally questioned the pricing of what many bankers noticed as getting old infrastructure.

State of play: Past compensation, regulators demanded a redesign of the system. They pushed onerous, tying compliance to a transition to Finish-Consumer Billing (EUB), the place telecom companies immediately deduct USSD costs from clients’ airtime balances. This transfer, now stay, removes banks from the billing chain and sure prevents one other debt pile-up.

But, with EUB, telecoms have regained a predictable money move stream; banks exit a bruising regulatory combat; and clients now see—and immediately bear—the price of USSD comfort.