Diamond Bank may exceed 40% lead in USSD transactions volume soon
Whereas the management of leading financial institution, Diamond Bank Plc has said it now controls 40 percent of the volume of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) transactions in the banking sector, industry pundits are of the opinion that the bank may exceed the feat going forward.
A digital payment expert who spoke to Business Hilights on the development said Diamond Bank is riding on a strong digital platform that is powered by world class network in delivering seamless USSD transactions.
The expert who preferred not to be named said the bank had for long been building the network, hinting that “As it stands now, the bank can jump to over 75 per cent in the USSD platform based on the strength of the network and varieties of its digital banking services.
The bank had recently noted that “in a bid to increase customers’ access to information, it would create an avenue for a periodic engagement, in form of information, to remind customers of the features and benefits of a product they have chosen”.
Already, the bank said it has concluded plans to celebrate its ‘Customer Service Week’ which would commence from October 11th to 14th, 2018.
Head of Operations, Diamond Bank, Alex Alozie, disclosed this during an interview revealed that “As at today, the number of customers using our USSD code, *426#, is even more than the number of people using our app on daily basis and then, in terms of the number of transaction, we control over 40 percent of the industry market on that and then ours is unique because you can actually use any type of phone. We are not making our own to be smart phone. And because we are a retail bank, if you come into Nigeria today and look at the number of customers e ach bank has, we have over 10 million retail customers across the country and most of our customers in financial inclusion areas and that is what they use.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had in April this year, announced that from June, bank customers will not be able to use Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel to conduct transactions more than N100, 000 per day.
The apex bank made it clear that customers will have to use both their PIN and a soft token to authenticate transactions above N20, 000.
The USSD is a technology platform for online payments. In addition, banks must allow their customers the option to opt out of USSD channel for financial transactions. These were highlights of the ‘Regulatory Framework for the use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for Financial Services in Nigeria’ issued by the CBN.
