The Central Financial institution of Nigeria’s digital fee statistics have proven that, between January and June 2024, 252.06 million transactions, which amounted to N2.19tn, had been carried out by way of Unstructured Supplementary Service Information codes.
It is a important milestone in comparison with the full-year knowledge for 2023, which confirmed that N4.84tn was transacted by way of USSD codes throughout 630.6 million transactions.
The N2.19tn recorded within the first half of 2024 represents 45.3 per cent of the entire worth of USSD transactions in 2023 and 40 per cent of the entire transaction quantity for a similar 12 months.
Initially developed by telecom corporations for offering airtime and subscription providers, the USSD service has been extensively adopted within the banking sector as a result of it doesn’t require an Web connection.
USSD codes proceed to play a vital position in Nigeria’s monetary inclusion technique, providing a platform for customers with restricted web entry to make fast and handy transactions.
That is particularly essential in rural areas, the place web connectivity stays unreliable.
Nevertheless, this type of transaction has been threatened by over N250bn debt, which has been a contentious situation for the previous six years, prompting previous interventions from the Central Financial institution of Nigeria underneath Godwin Emefiele’s management and the previous Minister of Communications, Isa Pantami, however no lasting resolution has been reached.
The Chairman of the Affiliation of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, earlier lamented that banks have been making the most of USSD providers with out fulfilling their fee obligations within the final six years.
Final month, The PUNCH reported that telecom operators in Nigeria had been seeing some progress within the compensation of the N250bn debt tied to Unstructured Supplementary Service Information providers, with smaller banks starting to settle their obligations.
Nevertheless, tier-one lenders chargeable for the majority of the debt are but to make important funds.
On the time, the ALTON chairman disclosed that whereas some repayments have been recorded, they fall wanting expectations.
Whereas USSD stays a dominant channel amidst current challenges, different digital fee strategies have additionally seen substantial development.
Automated Teller Machine transactions have skilled a outstanding quantity, with N12.21tn transacted within the first half of 2024 for 496.44 million transactions.
Level-of-sale transactions are additionally important, indicating the nation’s ongoing shift in direction of cashless funds.