Guaranty Trust Bank has announced that it will now deduct the N6.98 charge for USSD banking transactions directly from customers’ airtime instead of their bank accounts.
In a message sent to its customers, the bank said the new method would take effect today, June 18, 2025.
The message read, “Dear Customer, please be informed that effective 18 June 2025, the N6.98 USSD fee will be deducted from your airtime balance, no longer from your bank account. Thank you.”
This move follows a new directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission, supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria, which asked all banks to adopt this new billing system. The change aims to settle long-standing disagreements between banks and telecom operators over unpaid USSD charges.
Before now, banks deducted the fee directly from users’ bank accounts. Telecom operators, however, complained that banks were using their USSD platforms without paying for it on time, which led to debts reportedly as high as ₦250 billion by 2024.
To solve this problem, the NCC introduced what it called the End-User Billing model. This new rule says that banks must pay off the money they owe and begin deducting future USSD fees from customers’ airtime instead.
Under this new arrangement, when a customer wants to use USSD, they will first see a message showing the ₦6.98 charge. If they have enough airtime and agree to the charge, only then will the transaction go through and the fee be deducted.
This new policy affects all banks in Nigeria, and GTBank is now among those fully implementing it. The change is meant to ensure fairness and clear financial responsibility between the banks and the telecom operators.
