The Central Bank of Nigeria has opposed plans by MTN to charge their subscribers for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data access to banking services from Oct. 21.

The Governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, gave the bank’s position at a news briefing by the Nigerian delegation to the just-concluded World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, in Washington on Sunday.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that MTN, in an SMS message to its subscribers, had said the decision was on the request of the banks and would take effect from October 21.

“Yello, as requested by your bank, from October 21, we will start charging you directly for USSD access to banking services.

“Please, contact your bank for more info,’’ the message said.

Responding to a question seeking his reaction to the announcement, the CBN governor said the bank would not allow that to happen.

“About five, four months ago, I held a meeting with some telecom companies as well as the leading banks in Nigeria at Central Bank, Lagos.

“At that time, we came to a conclusion that the use of USSD is a sunk cost.

“What we mean by a sunk cost is that it is not an additional cost on the infrastructure of the telecom company.

“But the telecom companies disagreed with us. They said it was an additional investment on infrastructure and for that reason, they needed to impose it.

“I have told the banks that we will not allow this to happen.

“The banks are the people who give this business to the telecom companies and I leave the banks and the telecom companies to engage.

“I have told the banks that they have to move their business, move their traffic to a telecom company that is ready to provide it at the lowest possible, if not zero cost.

“And that is where we stand, and we must achieve it,’’ he said.

NAN reports that the transactions to be affected by the charges include intra- and inter-bank money transfers, through USSD, among others.

(NAN)

https://punchng.com/cbn-opposes-mtns-planned-charges-for-ussd-transactions/

USSD has never been free ..the CBN just trying to absolve itself from this ..Oga emeifele who the ordered POS owners to charge 50 naira per POS Use ?

Nigerians let's avoid all these ridiculous charges. Take advantage of recharge and get paid and get a percentage of your every USSD transaction returned to you instead of getting charged for USSD.

*Brief presentation of RAGP TELECOM Business*

*Introduction*

Recharge and get paid is not a promo!Recharge and get paid Ltd is a limited liability company incorporated by the CAC in August, 2015 and licensed by the NCC on 22nd March, 2016 to carry out telecommunications business in Nigeria. Recharge and get paid Ltd has also obtained the distributorship licence of all the Four major GSM network providers in Nigeria to distribute their recharge card digitally. As the name implies, it means when u recharge ur own phone, u will be paid cash discount.

*RAGP mission statement*
"To create wealth for the people, through our superb products & unique compensation plan, create employment...."

*Explanation of RAGP mission statement*
- to create wealth for the people. Who are these people? It's simply the 140M Nigerians who are actively using GSM; recharging their phones and subscribing for data since 2001 without cash discount or any form of cash reward.
- RAGP superb products. Our product is recharge card, which almost everyone uses.
- unique compensation plan: for those who can do the networking aspect, which is not compulsory anyway, RAGP has the best compensation plan in Nigeria now.
- Creating employment: so many jobless graduates have found work doing RAGP business.

*Huge Market potential of recharge card in Nigeria*

Nigeria has close to 140M active GSM users, more than 100M out of this are connected to the internet. These 140M people contribute close to #100bn on daily basis through recharging and data subscription. I bought MTN Lumos recently and discovered that one has to use MTN recharge card for subscription to get Light 24/7. Half of this #100bn go to distributors. This is what the banks saw and started selling recharge card through VTU.

*Why U shouldn't recharge from ur bank account*

Many people erroneously believe that their banks don't charge them extra amount when they recharge directly from their account. Let me ask u these following questions:
1. Do u receive SMS alert after recharging, and how many?
2. Even if the SMS alert charges are not debited immediately, do u ever receive SMS debit alert any other time within the month?
Some people also maintain that banks charge for VAT which goes to the federal Govt.
Banks will also earn 5% from ur network provider, this money cud be urs if u are a distributor through RAGP.

*Basic benefits of an investor in RAGP*

1. Registration bonus: 20% when u register in any of the above packages.
2. Power of attorney to refer other people to also get their VTU from RAGP. U can use this power or decline
3. Distributorship licence to distribute the recharge cards of all the GSM network providers in Nigeria.
4. Recharging directly from your network provider.
5. Payment on your personal recharges
6. Payment on when u transfer/sell recharge card to anyone
7. 10% cash discount on data subscription
8. Cheaper cable TV subscription.
9. VTU bonus 10% u can only use this for calls. It's not cash

Note: one doesn't have to refer anyone to get these benefits.

*Additional benefits for active partners*
10. Direct referral bonus: 20%
11. Indirect referral bonus: 10%
12. Daily dividend: u will be earning from the recharge & data subscription of ur direct and indirect down lines for life.
And many more...

Note: active partners are those who create awareness about RAGP telecommunications business to family & friends and dissuade them from recharging through their account or buying paper recharge. Networking is the *21st century business* MTN is using networking to sell their Lumos electricity now. When people go to buy Lumos, MTN will tell them what to benefit when they refer other people to come and buy Lumos too.
To join the WhatsApp group for more info on RAGP pls send a message to this phone number and I would send you the link
07056592308
Or log onto twitter, check out my handle @chiwizzi and click on the link in my bio to be redirected to the RAGP WhatsApp group
Be informed and be liberated