Nigeria’s Communication Minister wades into MTN-banks feud 

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has intervened in the disagreement between  MTN Nigeria and commercial banks, assuring that it will soon be resolved.

In a tweet late Friday evening, he revealed that he had met with regulators and the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Pantami tweeted, “On the fallout between @MTNNG and some banks on USSD services today, I engaged with both regulators, the Governor of @cenbank and EVC @NgComCommission.

“We have reached an advanced stage of resolving the issues, for the services to be restored to our citizens. Many thanks!”

GTBank, Access Bank and other commercial banks blocked MTN subscribers from using their services over a disagreement over commission rate.

MTN failed to reach an agreement with the banks concerning the fee-sharing from the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). The telco had cut the commission rate to 2.5% from 3.5%, but the lenders requested the status quo be maintained, which made GTBank, Access Bank and other commercial banks block MTN subscribers from using their services through USSD and banking app.