Nigerians are still struggling with *966#; *894#; *737#; #*919#; *711# USSD code
With more Nigerians resorting to electronic payment channels as a result of the acute shortage in cash circulation in the economy, financial institutions have been urged to strengthen their e-payment platforms.
The suggestion was made at the weekend by PPC Limited, lCT and the Infrastructure Development Company of Nigeria. Speaking on the impact of the redesigned naira note on the banking infrastructure, the Director of Operations and Head of ICT Division at PPC, Dr Patrick Ede, stated that there are not enough e-payment channels to handle the flood of transactions. with the increase in the use of these channels for payments has led to many failed and unsuccessful transactions.
He added that the congestion and the resulting system downtime affected the commercial activities of traders as transactions became slow, delayed and sometimes incomplete, as banks in the country were never prepared for the level of surge they are currently experiencing. |
ICT experts call on banks to implement measures that will ensure all electronic payment channels are processed simultaneously, quickly and efficiently.
Ede said, “the growing needs of banks’ digital channels require increased investment in reliable payment systems that deliver transactions quickly.
“To alleviate congestion in the payment channel, banks should conduct an audit of the payment channel to identify gaps and loopholes in the system with the aim of gradual resolution. This first step will ensure that banks raise the standard of experience provided to customers and ensure that the customer remains at the center business model.
He urged banks to consider upgrading their servers, networks and hardware infrastructure to handle peak time operations, adding that this move would ensure that all electronic payment channels can process transactions quickly and efficiently.
Ede advises financial institutions to improve security protocols to ensure that all electronic payment channels are secure, protect customer data and prevent fraud.
According to him, there may be a need for financial institutions to expand existing payment channels to accommodate more transactions. Ede said that PPC’s expertise in the deployment of ICT infrastructure and high engineering has helped several organizations in the public and private sectors to create secure, robust and scalable systems suitable for a variety of commercial uses.
Indeed, it has not been uhuru for Nigerians, especially with the unstructured use of the Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform for the past three weeks.
USSD banking is an SMS-based mobile banking service, where USSD short codes are used to access financial services such as transfers, bill payments, and airtime top-ups, among others.
Many bank customers are turning to the USSD platform to carry out financial transactions because they cannot get cash through the counter in the banking hall, coupled with the fact that Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) refuse to give cash and Point of Sales (PoS Terminals) are now restricted areas due to high service charges by merchants.
It was gathered that some USSD transactions that appeared to have gone through the platform, which could take up to 30 minutes to send, were later found to have failed.
USSD codes Nigerians struggle with include *966#; *894#; *737#; #*919#; *711#, among others. So many failed transactions have been reported on the platform due to lack of fixed cash.