The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday issued exposure draft of regulatory framework for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for the financial system.
This is in furtherance of its mandate for the development of the electronic payments system in Nigeria.
In a circular to all deposit money banks, mobile money operators, payment solution service providers and other service providers, signed by Dipo Fatokun, director, banking and payments system department, the CBN requested for inputs on or before September 21, 2017.
The USSD technology is a protocol used by the GSM network to communicate with a service provider’s platform.
Recently, providers of mobile telephony-based financial transactions are increasingly adopting the USSD technology while the range of services supported by their mobile transaction services using the USSD channel is broadening rapidly.
Among financial services provided through the channel include, account opening, balance and other inquiries, money transfer, airtime vending, bill payment, internet/mobile banking detail retrieval and one-time password.
The circular stated that all mobile money operators are eligible for the issuance of short codes from the Nigerian Communication a Commission (NCC) after meeting the necessary requirements of the NCC.
For those other than mobile money operators, the circular said a letter of comfort from the CBN would be required before being considered for issuance of the short codes by the NCC.
Hope Moses-Ashike
