Breaking: CBN Introduces new Charges for bank Customers Using USSD code

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday, March 16, introduced a new charge of N6.98 for every Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) service.

This was made known in a joint statement released and signed by CBN’s acting director, Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi, and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) director, public affairs, Ikechukwu Adinde.

According to the apex bank, the new charge which replaces the current per session billing structure takes effect from Tuesday.

It was gathered that this development was part of the agreement reached between banks and telecommunication operators after they met to discuss the N42bn debt owed by financial institutions.

The new USSD charges will be collected on behalf of Mobile Network Operators directly from customers’ bank accounts to promote transparency.

The statement added that banks will not impose additional charges on customers for the USSD service.

Meanwhile, Ngnews247.com reported that the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said she would meet with the governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, to discuss the country’s multiple exchange rate regime.

Okonjo-Iweala said members of WTO are complaining of Nigeria’s multiple exchange rates regime, which has split foreign exchange in three different ways, as the CBN rate, investors window rate, and the parallel market have different price exchanges.

After her meeting with President Buhari, she told the press of the concern raised by other countries regarding a change in the forex policy of Nigeria.