African telecoms giant MTN is exploring the deployment of other electronic payment platforms for its customers in Nigeria to recharge their phones after disagreements with commercial banks led to disruptions of USSD services. The decision comes after its customers suffered a series of disruptions and inability to recharge their phone lines and some other services offered jointly by MTN and commercial banks owing to disagreements between the two parties over commission and service charges.
It could be recalled that over 77 million MTN subscribers were disconnected from all banking channels by the commercial banks, due to disagreements over banks’ commission which was reduced by the mobile network operator from an average of 3.5% to 2.5%. The commercial banks, in an earlier written communication with MTN, were reported to have asked for a reversal to the old commission or they would block MTN airtime recharge services in all their channels.
Read also:Smile Telecoms Restructures Debt, Gets $51m Fund for Expansion
All the commercial banks, except Zenith Bank which was connected directly to MTN, thereafter barred MTN from their banking channels, leaving many MTN subscribers stranded and frustrated as they were unable to recharge airtime through USSD and bank apps amid the Easter celebrations. To overcome the challenge, MTN is looking at alternative channels include payment solutions platforms such as Flutterwave, Jumia Pay, OPay, Kuda, Carbon and BillsnPay.MTN said its customers could recharge airtime by dialling *904# and *606#. Adding that “It will interest you to note that for the benefit of our customers who have been greatly inconvenienced by the service suspension, we now have alternative channels of accessing MTN services electronically.
The list and links to access the various alternative platforms are MTN On Demand is on *904# and also via https://mtnondemand.flutterwave.com; Barter By Flutterwave (app);Jumia Pay (app);Pay (app);MTN Xtratime airtime loans (*606#);Carbon (app);Kuda (app);BillsnPay (app and web);myMTN Web Momo agent *223#.The Apps can be downloaded from the Playstore and the Appstore.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry