Mobile phones have become one of the most common items that the rich and poor, big and small, men and women, educated and unlettered are seen with these days. In fact, the youths, who drive the social media have acquired mobile phones in variants. They are the targets of the retail banking and financial inclusion.

The latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research showed that about one billion people globally, representing one in seven people on earth, have used their phones to perform at least one banking transaction as at the end of 2015.

The research authority projects this figure to grow to two billion in the next four years (2020), representing 37 per cent of the global adult population. But there seems to be a game changer in the offing. It is the innovative offering of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), which presently is being tapped by few financial institutions in Nigeria to deepen retail banking and financial inclusion.

Granted, almost all banks in the leading economies on the continent have launched mobile apps that enable myriads of transactions like bills payment, funds transfers, travel bookings and lots more. In Nigeria, banks are now taking it a bit further and have introduced USSD banking to ensure that the masses, especially those that do not have smart phones are not left perpetually financially excluded. USSD is a Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication technology used to send texts messages between a mobile phone and an application programme in the owner network. Example of USSD is *894*amount*Account number# for fund transfers from First Bank.

The question is, how secure is the use of USSD in mobile banking, considering the fact that it involves a third party, a GSM service provider, who could easily and possibly have access to an ongoing transactions in the system? Or even have access to subscribers' bank details, since GSM number is linked to bank details.

Tech and cyber security people over to you o. Make una no delay us o.


Genius J

It doesn't matter to me, Bill Gate and Dangote will loose more money if it fails



Get Zenith bank app here: http://www.techopaedia.com/2017/04/zenith-bank-internet-mobile-banking-app-www-zenithbank-com.html

It is very safe