Some bank customers have continued to lament fees that banks charge them on every banking transactions carried out on all Unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) banking platforms.
Some of the customers said that they would not blame the bank for the fee charged but bad governance and leadership in place.
USSD is a communications service controlled by mobile network operators.
It is also a critical piece of infrastructure used to provide mobile financial services on most phones, at low cost, and without requiring access to the user’s SIM card.
Some banks have been sending notifications of the fees to be charged to their customers.
GTB message reads “Please be informed that you are now required to pay a fee of N6.98 to your mobile network provider for every banking transaction carried out on all USSD banking platforms.
“This means that when you send money to anyone using USSD, a fee of N6.98 will be charged from your bank account, which is in turn remitted in full by your bank, to your mobile network provider.
“Please note that Airtime and Data purchases via USSD are exempted from this charge on USSD platforms.
“As our customer, we are making sure you have as many options as possible for all your financial transactions. You can send money to anyone and pay bills anytime you are using our GTWorld Mobile App, at no extra charge,’’ it said.
Mrs Mabel Igbodo, a Civil Servant, urged government to be considerate and try to ameliorate sufferings of the masses.
“There are other charges that are hidden that banks charge on my account. These are little things the government needs to do address to alleviate the plights of the people.
“The time has come for me to download my bank App and begin to use, that is if they will not come up with another deductions on that too,’’ she said.
Mr Clifford Peter, a business man, also blamed bad leadership for the current situation in the country.
“I am planning to activate Mobile app for all my bank accounts; we are not happy with the way things are going on in this country, what we are experiencing now is due to bad policies,’’ he said.
Mrs Regina Fidelis, fruits seller, expressed dissatisfaction over the fees charged stressing that she would continue using the bank’s USSD code.
“I am not happy with the fee charged but I have no options but to continue to use it because it is faster.
“I do not need a Mobile App in my phone for security reasons and for the safety of my money,’’ she said.
Mrs Rebecca Ebri, a food vendor said she neither uses a USSD code nor a Mobile App for her banking transactions, yet still receives alert of deductions from her bank.
“I would never use any of them i prefer walking down to the Automated Teller Machine to carry out my transactions.
“Even though I do not have a lot of money in my account, the bank still carries out huge deductions from my account.
“The government ought to have been paying the poor stipends monthly instead of taking from them,’’ Ebri said.
