- Guaranty Trust Bank has announced a 50% summation successful SMS alerts from N4 to N6 per message
- The institution disclosed that the alteration was owed to the caller tariff hikes by telecommunication operators
- GTBank said customers tin opt retired of the SMS alert work by submitting a petition connected its website and via its authoritative email address
Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported connected tech, energy, stocks, concern and the economy for implicit a decade.
One of Nigeria’s tier-1 banks, Guaranty Trust Bank, has disclosed that it volition summation its SMS transaction alert charges by 50% from N4 to N6 per alert starting May 1, 2025.
The slope said the determination was caused by the caller 50% hike successful telecommunication services.

Source: Getty Images
GTBank discloses the crushed for the increase
GTBank stated that the caller interest was owed to changes successful telecom charges sent by web operators.
It besides acknowledged the relation of SMS transaction alerts successful helping depositors enactment up to day and show their relationship activities.
It disclosed that customers who privation to opt retired of the SMS alerts can taxable a transaction alert connected its website and enactment email.
Recently, telecom operators announced a 50% tariff hike for calls, information and SMS, sparking a flurry of changes successful the telecom sector.
Telecom operators hike tariffs
Leading telecom operators successful Nigeria announced that the summation came aft implicit a decennary of agitation, stating that their operations were grinding to a halt owed to precocious operational costs and inflation.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved the tariff hike connected March 1, 2025, saying the determination was to prevention the industry from collapse.
Customers to beryllium charged for airtime for USSD
Legit.ng antecedently reported that telecommunication subscribers volition soon beryllium charged for utilizing Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) done deductions from their airtime.
Reports accidental talks person precocious betwixt commercialized banks and the telcos to present an end-user billing system.
The determination is simply a departure from the erstwhile firm billing system, wherever slope customers were charged for USSD from their deposits.
The president of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, disclosed that the discussions are ongoing and that the modalities are being enactment successful spot to incorporated subscribers, telcos and banks successful 1 suit.
The Guardian reports that the ALTON brag said the end-user billing system, which the banks person been promoting, mightiness assistance against accumulated USSD debts, curtailing the impasse betwixt the banks and the telecom operators.
Banks to extremity USSD charges connected deposits
Adebayo said that the parties person commenced treatment to migrate to an end-user billing strategy without disruptions to services for subscribers.
According to him, the speech has begun, and determination volition beryllium a migration process that the parties volition hold to, marking the extremity solution to the contented of USSD debts, which helium said the banks person been advocating for.
A September 16, 2019, memo to ALTON from the Body of Banks’ Chief Executive Officers (BOBCEO) projected an orderly implementation of end-user billing for slope customers, aligning it with modular practices for USSD billing.
According to reports, the slope bosses disapproved of sharing gross from USSD transactions with the telcos, claiming that work providers, which proviso the level for USSD services, projected to instrumentality a chopped of N4.50k per 20 seconds from the charges paid by customers to the banks.

Source: UGC
The banks opposed this, alleging that it would rise costs by 450% arsenic of then.
However, the telcos rejected the proposal, citing assorted dynamics, including the exertion involved.
MTN Nigeria Recovers N32 Billion successful USSD Debt
Meanwhile, Legit.ng antecedently reported that MTN Nigeria says it recovered N32 billion from Nigerian banks arsenic portion of the N74 cardinal outstanding indebtedness owed to telcos for USSD work charges.
The telecom steadfast revealed that astir N42 cardinal remained outstanding, showing ongoing tensions successful the quality betwixt banks and telecom firms.
The indebtedness betterment comes amid interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) successful December past year.
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Source: Legit.ng