Isa Ali Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has waded in the standoff between banks and MTN Nigeria over the suspension of airtime purchase and other services via the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform.

Millions of phone users were unable to purchase MTN airtime via the USSD platform and their banking mobile apps on Friday after the abrupt non-availability of the service.

But in a Twitter post late Friday, Pantami explained that he had met with Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); and Professor Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and has intervened.

According to the minister, talks “have reached an advance stage”, assuring that the USSD service will soon be restored.

Professor Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, while speaking at an event on 11 March, disclosed that the money deposit banks are owing the telecom operators N42 billion, admitting that it has been a continuous issue between the telcos and the banks.

According to a source in the telecoms industry, who spoke exclusively to Newsbreak on Friday, the banks were the ones which single-handedly suspended the various USSD payment options without informing the telecom operators, partly due to the lingering N42 billion owed by the former and which they have refused to pay.

The source said MTN was forced to send a message to its subscribers due to the sudden unavailability of the USSD service, adding that the banks are trying to shift the payment of the debt on to customers through the new N6.98 service charge for each USSD transaction, as announced in a joint statement by the NCC and CBN on 16 March.