Indications emerged on Tuesday that Deposit Money Banks and telecom operators may have formally commenced charge deductions on the use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data directly from customers’ airtime instead of their bank accounts.
Indeed, the banks have started the process after sending messages to their customers about the new process.
First City Monument Bank announced this change on Tuesday in an e-mail message to customers, following a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The message read: “Each USSD session will cost ₦6.98 per 120 seconds, charged by your mobile network. You will be asked to approve the charge before it’s deducted from your airtime. If you prefer, you can use other banking channels like ATMs, mobile apps, or Internet banking.”
This change, also communicated by the United Bank for Africa to its customers, said it will take effect on June 3, 2025.
UBA stated, “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.”
The bank further explained that, “Going forward, these charges will be deducted directly from your mobile airtime balance in accordance with the NCC’s End-User Billing (EUB) model.”
As part of the new arrangement, each USSD session will incur a charge of ₦6.98 per 120 seconds, which will be billed by the mobile network operator.
UBA added, “You will receive a consent prompt at the start of each session, and airtime will only be deducted upon your confirmation and availability of the bank to fulfill this service.”
The bank advised customers who do not wish to continue with the new billing model to opt out.
“If you do not wish to continue using USSD banking under this new model, you may choose to discontinue use of the USSD channel.”
The decision stems from a longstanding dispute over USSD service payments between Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).
As of December 2024, MNOs claimed banks owed them over ₦250 billion, prompting intervention by both the Central Bank of Nigeria and the NCC.
Network providers had threatened to terminate USSD services due to the mounting debt.
This recent decision from the NCC is viewed as part of efforts to resolve the disagreement and assure continuous USSD banking services across the country.
Sentiment in NGX, NASD remains positive as investors gain N259bn
Meanwhile, the two major equities trading platforms in the Nigerian capital market recorded gains on Tuesday, indicative of investors’ positive sentiment towards equities.
At the Nigerian Exchange Limited the bullish momentum of the previous session was sustained, as gains in DANGCEM (+2.3%), FIRSTHOLDCO (+8.8%), and GTCO (+2.1%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 0.37% to 112,427.48 points.
Similarly, market capitalisation advanced to N70.89 trillion, as a result additional wealth valued at N259.48 billion was created for investors at the close of trading session. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at +0.6% and +9.2%, respectively.
The total volume traded increased by 20.2% to 622.64 million units, valued at NGN16.12 billion, and exchanged in 17,044 deals. FIDELITYBK was the most traded stock by volume at 108.17 million units, while GTCO was the most traded stock by value at NGN2.80 billion.
On sectors, the Banking (+1.4%), Consumer Goods (+1.1%), Industrial Goods (+1.0%) and Insurance (+0.8%) indices advanced, while the Oil & Gas (-0.2%) index declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.1x), as 34 tickers gained relative to 31 losers. HONYFLOUR (+10.0%) and SCOA (+10.0%) led the gainers, while CONOIL (-10.0%) and LEARNAFRCA (-10.0%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
NASD OTC EXCHANGE
Like the NGX, unlisted equities market, the NASD OTC Exchange equally closed on a positive note.
The benchmark index, the NASD Securities Index advanced by 0.65% to 3,267.77 points from the 3,246.75 points recorded on Monday.
Trading analysis shows that 1.25 million units of unlisted equities valued at N22.89 million were exchanged in 40 deals.
At the close of trading, the market recorded three and zero losers.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 2bps to 26.9% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Proceedings in the NTB secondary market were quiet, as the average yield remained unchanged at 20.7%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp) and long (-1bp) ends, driven by the demand for the 79DTM (-1bp) and 289DTM (-2bps) bills, respectively, but expanded at the mid (+2bps) segment, following profit taking activities on the 170DTM (+22bps) bill. Meanwhile, the average yield contracted by 2bps to 26.0% in the OMO segment.
The Treasury bond secondary market was quiet, as the average yield closed flat at 18.5%.
Tony Elumelu expands UBA ownership, buys N43.91bn shares
In a related development, the Chairman of United Bank for Africa, Tony Elumelu, has acquired an additional N43.91 billion worth of shares in the bank over a two-day period.
According to a regulatory filing submitted to the Nigerian Exchange Group by UBA’s Group Company Secretary, Bili Odum, the transactions were carried out between May 29 and May 30, 2025.
During this time, Elumelu purchased a total of 1,267,669,350 shares at an average price of N34.64 per share.
Detailed breakdowns from the filing show that the businessman bought 50 million shares at varying prices, N34.70, N34.65, N34.75, and N34.55, as well as an additional 17,669,350 shares at N34.70 per share.
This marks Elumelu’s second major purchase of UBA shares in May.
On May 23, he bought 45,034,044 shares at N34.30 each, a deal valued at approximately N1.53 billion.
Elumelu had earlier announced his intention to increase his stake in the bank on May 25, 2024.
His latest acquisition comes as UBA prepares to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive for commercial banks with international licenses to raise their capital base to N500 billion.
To comply, UBA plans to raise N144.8 billion in Q3 2025, building on its current capital base of N355.2 billion.
Elumelu has assured stakeholders that the capital raise will be completed before the CBN’s deadline.