MTN assures new N6.98 USSD charge won’t have maximum impact

MTN Nigeria has assured the network subscribers that the new end-user billing system for the use of USSD services will not affect them.

USSD, otherwise Unstructured Supplementary Service Data codes are commonly used for banking transactions, airtime recharges, and other mobile services.

The telco said that there is no significant impact or change other than the fact that they will now pay the same N6.98 per session (120 seconds) with their airtime instead of direct bank debit.

Lynda Saint-Nwafor, chief Enterprise business officer, disclosed this during a chat with MTN MIP fellows.

She explained that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have ordered telecom operators to ensure that the new billing model resolves trust issues and ensures transparency in the billing process.

“Our regulator insisted that at the end of every month, we are going to be providing history and statistics on the performance of the service across the board”, she explained.

Saint-Nwafor added that the new billing model has standardized messaging across all operators and ensures consistent communication with customers.

“We will take all the error codes and map them into messages that are standardised across the board. So, if you initiate a transaction, you will know if it is failing. And, when the transaction fails, you will know if it is from your bank or the telco,” she explained.