The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced an important change on the deduction of charges for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) transactions.
Starting Tuesday, June 3, 2025, Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) will no longer be allowed to deduct these fees directly from customers’ bank accounts. Instead, the charges will be deducted from users’ mobile airtime balances.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) informed its customers of this update through an email on Tuesday.
The bank’s statement reads: “In line with the directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), please be informed that effective June 3, 2025, charges for USSD banking services will no longer be deducted from your bank account.”
Going forward, the announcement specifies, “These charges will be deducted directly from your mobile airtime balance in accordance with the NCC’s End-User Billing (EUB) model.” Under this new billing structure, users will incur a charge of ₦6.98 for each 120-second USSD session, a fee billed by the respective mobile network operators.
Customers will receive a consent prompt at the start of each session; airtime will only be deducted upon their confirmation and if their bank is available to process the service.
UBA added: “If you do not wish to continue using USSD banking under this new model, you may choose to discontinue use of the USSD channel.”
