Inside Details: The Powerful Players Behind MTN & Bank’s USSD Fiasco

‘Sola Onamodu

Behind all the numbers bandied about in the MTN Nigeria and Banks raging USSD fiasco are major players pulling the levers of how things should go.

These powerful players Chief Executives, Government appointees, lawyers and lobbyists are at the center of the cut off of an appreciable number of people with the removal of MTN’s purchase services from the platforms of Nigerian Banks.

“The situation at hand has many layers and is complicated” societynow.ng learned.

The checks by societynow.ng have, however, revealed the uncomplicated version.

With the Banks owing N42Billion deductions from customers, MTN Nigeria is pushing for a reduction of their – and aggregators – commission on every charge done using USSD and Mobile apps.

MTN Nigeria wants the bank and the aggregators to take 2.5% as against 4% that was formerly in play.

Karl Toriola, MTN Nigeria’s new Chief Executive Officer is making this push and premised it on the fact that the USSD platform – that generates the income at stake – is provided and maintained by the telecos and not the Banks.

Toriola who recently took over from immediate past CEO Ferdinand Moolman is described as “recognized throughout the industry as a highly experienced and well-regarded business leader.”

Sources insist Toriola’s stance on the reduction of the commission of the Banks and aggregators is meant to protect not just MTN Nigeria but the larger telecommunication industry.

“If not anything, it reduces the burden of the debt of the deductions the Banks make from customers on behalf of the Telecos but fail to turn over” societynow.ng learned.

Insiders disclosed that leading the charge for the Banks are Segun Agbaje, Herbert Wigwe and Kennedy Uzoka – the Chief Executive Officers of GTBank, Access Bank and UBA respectively.

“The three top players are at the fore front of protecting the interests the of the Nigerian Banks. And their case is simple, they are protecting the figures on the balance sheet. You don’t just let go a source of income that brings him billions in revenue without not just putting up a fight but a spirited fight” societynow.ng learned.

According to information at hand  with the top three bankers leading the charge the likes of Oluwatomi Somefun (Unity Bank), Ademola Adebisi (Wema Bank), Innocent C Ike (Polaris Bank), Yemisi Edun (FCMB), Ifie Sekibo (Heritage Bank), Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe (Fidelity Bank),Olaniran Olayinka (Keystone), Abubakar Suleiman (Sterling Bank) naturally followed suit – they need the earnings at stake more than the lead agitators.

Insiders disclosed that leaders of established institutions such as Emeka Emuwa (Union Bank), Adesola Adeduntan (First Bank), Hassan Usman (Jaiz Bank), Lamin Manjang (Standard Chartered) and Demola Sogunle (Stanbic IBTC) were prevailed to join the class action against MTN Nigeria to make it “better weighted.”

Societynow.ng gathered that Ebenezer Onyeagwu (Zenith Bank) abstained because of his bank’s “special business relationship” with the target while Ade Adeyemi ( Eco Bank) is yet to commit to the action – as at press time – for reasons yet to be identified.

 Societynow.ng gathered yanking off MTN Nigeria’s purchase services from the platforms of the Banks is meant to hit at one of the places that should hurt the telecommunication company most.

Research revealed that over 60percent of airtime purchases by customers of the telecos are done electronically through the Banks.

“Hitting hard at MTN Nigeria with this decision is meant to serve as a strong warning to other players in the sector from towing same line” societynow.ng gathered.

Those who should know, however, claimed that the Banks might have committed a fundamental flaw in the handling of the situation.

“Maybe they have underestimated the preparedness of MTN Nigeria to take them on, may be not but one thing is sure they have provided MTN Nigeria with a real life situation of what it means to operate without the Banks along with the inherent benefits of ideas on how not to be caught in such a situation ever again. And that is against the strong conviction that the telecommunication company had something in the offing in pushing for reduction in the commission that risk assessors would have pointed out that the banks Chief Executives would strongly kick against. I hope and pray the Banks battling to stay relevance in the face of the widening services of the Fintechs and related Financial services providers have not overplayed their hands with this move against MTN Nigeria. Data is gold, real time Data is the value of the gold in unimaginable folds depending on who is using it and they just gifted MTN Nigeria something of that un-quantifiable value at minimal cost to the beneficiary and they didn’t charge anything for it” societynow.ng learned.

Sources disclosed that two other major players in the unfolding scenario, Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank and Isa Pantami the Minister for Communication and Digital Economy are playing peacemakers behind the scene.

Insiders disclosed that this is despite the fact that the Telecos – in this case MTN Nigeria – and the Banks separately lodged complaints against each other with Emefiele and Pantanmi.

“Yet this unfortunate situation hurting many Nigerians is playing out between the Banks and MTN Nigeria” societynow.ng learned.

Lobbyists and lawyers here and there acting on behalf of both sides are currently at work trying to make one look better than the other – both in public perception and eye of the law.