Pantami Directs Telecommunication Companies To Halt Withdrawal of USSD Services

The minister of communications and digital economy, Isa Pantami has ordered all telecommunication companies to stop the planned withdrawal of unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) services.

This was contained in a statement issued by his technical assistant. Femi Adeluyi on Saturday.

Recall that Telcos recently announced their plan to suspend USSD services over N42 billion debt owed by financial service providers effective Monday, March 15.

The statement reads, “The honourable minister of communications and digital economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has directed that the impending suspension of the USSD services by the mobile network operators (MNOs) be put on hold, ”

“The suspension which was to take effect on Monday, 15th of March, was due to the lingering debt owed MNOs by commercial banks for the provision of USSD banking services.”

“In a bid to ensure amicable resolution of the impasse, Dr Pantami has called for a meeting of all stakeholders, including governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the executive vice chairman of the NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission), the MNOs (mobile network operators), and the financial institutions, ”

“The meeting is scheduled to hold on Monday, 15th of March, 2021. The outcome of the meeting will determine the next step regarding the status of the USSD financial services.”