USSD for Business in Africa: How to Build Interactive Customer Experiences Without an App

GAGodwin AmefiaMarch 7, 202613 min read

African businesses spend months and millions building mobile apps that most of their customers never download. Meanwhile, a technology that predates smartphones carries the larger share of the continent’s mobile money transaction volume, reaching every mobile phone on every network without a single megabyte of data.

That technology is USSD. And if USSD for business is not part of your customer engagement plan, the most accessible channel on the continent is sitting unused.

What Is USSD and Why It Matters for African Businesses

USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a session-based mobile protocol built into every GSM network that lets a customer dial a short code such as *123# and move through an interactive menu in real time, with no app, no smartphone and no internet connection.

That is the plain meaning of USSD. When a customer dials your code, the network opens a live session between their handset and your system. They choose a menu option, enter a value, get an answer, and the session closes, usually in well under a minute.

Unlike SMS, a USSD session is two-way and instant. Unlike an app, it works on every mobile device ever made, from a feature phone bought a decade ago to the newest smartphone.

The transaction data backs that up. USSD accounted for 63.5% of total mobile money transaction volume in Africa in 2024, according to Market Data Forecast. In West Africa the concentration runs higher still: as reported by Market Data Forecast, citing the Central Bank of West African States, 89% of mobile money interactions in the WAEMU region happen over USSD.

Providers build for it too, and not only in Africa. Across the GSMA’s worldwide survey of mobile money services, at least 81% offered USSD for merchant transactions in 2024, ahead of app-based payments at 80% and QR codes at 73%, with fewer than 13% offering NFC. That is a global provider picture rather than an African one, and it makes the point cleanly. USSD is not a regional workaround. It is standard payment infrastructure.

USSD vs Apps vs SMS: Which Channel Reaches Your Customers

Every channel trades something away. USSD trades interface richness for reach, and in most African markets reach is the constraint that decides whether a service works at all.

The Channel Comparison

Feature	USSD	Mobile App	SMS
Device compatibility	Every mobile phone	Smartphones only	Every mobile phone
Data required	None	Yes	None
Interactivity	Real-time menus	Full UI	One-way
Download required	No	Yes	No
Offered for merchant payments by mobile money providers worldwide, 2024 (GSMA survey)	At least 81%	80%	Not reported
Setup effort	Low	High	Low

Why Reach Decides the Channel in Africa

The reach argument is not theoretical. In Africa, 63% of the population lives within mobile broadband coverage but is not yet online, and only 28% is connected to mobile internet, according to the GSMA’s Mobile Economy Africa 2026. Coverage stopped being the bottleneck. Getting people online is the bottleneck now, and an app-first strategy quietly assumes that gap away.

One field study put the two channels side by side under controlled conditions. According to Raghunath et al.’s eKichabi v2 field study, a rural Tanzanian deployment offered the same business directory as both a USSD service and an Android app to the same 1,014 households. The USSD version reached 266 unique users across 2,939 sessions. The Android app reached 40 unique users from 42 downloads.

Field study comparison: the same business directory offered to 1,014 rural Tanzanian households reached 266 unique users across 2,939 USSD sessions, versus 40 unique users from 42 Android app downloads

Read that finding precisely. It measures reach, not quality of experience. The same paper found the Android app fostered higher retention per user. USSD got the service in front of far more people, and the app served its smaller group more deeply.

For context, the same study found smartphone penetration among the peri-urban and rural Tanzanian households it surveyed was around 7%. That is one region of Tanzania in 2022, not a figure for Africa. It is also exactly the kind of market where USSD stops being a fallback and becomes the only channel that reaches anyone.

For a channel-by-channel breakdown, see our comparisons of USSD and mobile apps in Africa and USSD, SMS and WhatsApp. And when you are weighing SMS against voice for business communication, USSD adds a third option: real-time interactivity with no data dependency.

5 High-Impact USSD Use Cases for African Businesses

USSD for business is not a one-trick channel. Businesses using USSD run everything from balance checks to full payment flows through a single dialable code.

Each pattern below is a complete USSD customer experience: one code, one session, one job done. Our roundup of seven business uses for USSD covers the wider range.

1. Customer Self-Service

Let customers check account balances, view recent transactions, update personal details and manage subscriptions through a dial-in menu. No call centre queue. No app download. No data charge.

Self-service menus pull routine work out of your support queue and put customers in control of it. A bank customer dials *123#, selects “Check Balance”, and has the answer in seconds.

2. Payments and Mobile Money

USSD is the engine behind mobile money in Africa. Africa processed 92 billion mobile money transactions worth $1.4 trillion in 2025, which is 74% of global transaction volume and 66% of global transaction value, according to the GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2026.

Businesses build USSD payment flows for bill payments, subscription renewals, merchant checkout and peer-to-peer transfers. Your customer pays without downloading anything. Our guide to USSD financial services and mobile money in Africa goes deeper on the mechanics.

Because money moves inside the session, design for USSD transaction security from the first screen.

3. Surveys and Feedback Collection

USSD surveys reach customers straight after an interaction, while the experience is still fresh. A three-question menu takes seconds to complete and returns structured answers you can act on.

Because the session is live, the response arrives in the moment rather than waiting on someone to open an inbox. That timing is the advantage, and it is why field teams use USSD for data collection in places with no internet coverage at all.

4. Loyalty Programmes, Promotions and USSD Marketing

USSD marketing reaches your entire customer base, not only the segment carrying a smartphone and a data bundle. Customers dial in to check points, redeem rewards, enter a promotion or opt into a campaign, all from a code printed on a receipt, a poster or a pack.

The pattern that works is a pairing. Send an SMS with the offer and the code, then let the dialled session carry the interaction: entry, eligibility check, reward, confirmation. The SMS creates the prompt. USSD closes the loop and leaves you a record of who acted.

Run it as a measurable campaign. Give each promotion its own menu path so redemptions are attributable to the campaign that drove them. Hold the entry step to a single screen, because every extra screen costs you completions.

Then follow each completed session with a confirmation message through the Arkesel SMS Platform, so the customer keeps a record of the reward alongside yours.

5. Registration and Onboarding

Onboard new customers through a guided USSD flow. Collect name, location, preferences and consent in a structured menu, then trigger a confirmation SMS. Pairing USSD for capture with SMS for confirmation makes onboarding work on any handset.

Healthcare providers, insurers and agricultural platforms across Africa use USSD registration to reach rural populations that apps and websites never touch.

Ready to put a dialable code in front of your customers? Arkesel USSD Solutions delivers shortcode provisioning and session handling across Ghana’s networks.

Where USSD Falls Short (And How to Design Around It)

USSD’s limits are real: short sessions, very little text per screen, and a completion cost for every extra menu level. Those limits decide whether your service works, so design for them from the first screen.

In the same Tanzanian study, 30% of surveyed households self-identified as non-users of USSD, and 53% of those who do use it said they need help with it at least occasionally. That is a real ceiling, and better marketing does not move it. Better menu design does.

Those three constraints are where the ceiling comes from.

Three USSD constraints and the design response to each: sessions are short and expire, each screen holds very little text, and menu depth costs completions

Sessions are short and they expire. A USSD session stays open for a limited window that varies by network, so a flow that asks for too much times out mid-task. Confirm the current session window for each network with your provider, then design every journey to finish comfortably inside the shortest one.

Each screen holds very little text. You get a short block of characters and nothing else. No images, no formatting, no scrolling back. Every word on the screen has to earn its place.

Depth costs completions. Each extra level is another decision a customer can get wrong or abandon. Keep the tree shallow and put your highest-volume task on the first screen.

Design around those three and you remove most of the friction that sends people looking for help in the first place. Our guide to USSD menu design best practices covers the specifics, from option labelling to error handling.

Industries Using USSD to Reach Customers

Five sectors put USSD to work hardest: banking and fintech, healthcare, agriculture, insurance, and e-commerce and logistics.

Banking and Fintech

Mobile money built on USSD reshaped financial inclusion across Africa. Banks and fintechs run account opening, balance inquiries, transfers, loan applications and payment processing over dialable menus. The market behind that infrastructure keeps growing: Africa’s mobile money market was valued at $951 million in 2025 and is projected to reach $4.3 billion by 2034, a compound annual growth rate of 18.32% from 2026 to 2034, according to Market Data Forecast.

Healthcare

Patients book appointments, receive medication reminders, complete symptom checks and access health information through USSD menus. Where internet access is thin, USSD is the most dependable channel for patient follow-up. Our guide to USSD healthcare services in Africa walks through five patient services that run without an app.

Agriculture

Farmer information services deliver market prices, weather forecasts and agronomic advice through dialable menus. A farmer checks commodity prices before heading to market and receives planting alerts tied to local conditions. No smartphone. No data plan. Just a code.

Insurance

Micro-insurance products across Africa rely on USSD for enrolment, premium payment and claims filing. Customers manage the whole policy lifecycle through a shortcode, which puts cover within reach of populations that traditional distribution never served.

E-commerce and Logistics

Order tracking, delivery confirmation and customer support run through USSD menus without an app download. Logistics teams confirm deliveries, collect proof of receipt and trigger payment releases from the same code.

For a wider view of building a channel mix that combines USSD with SMS, voice and digital, see our roundup of the best customer communication tools for businesses.

How to Build Your First USSD Application

Launching USSD for business takes less than most teams expect. Here is the path.

The six steps to launch a USSD service: define the customer journey, get a shortcode, design the menu structure, integrate your backend, test across networks and devices, then launch and monitor

Step 1: Define Your Customer Journey

Map the interactions you want to move to USSD. Start with your highest-volume, lowest-complexity transactions: balance checks, status inquiries, short registrations. Those return value fastest.

Step 2: Get a USSD Shortcode in Ghana

Your shortcode is the entry point, the number your customers dial. In Ghana that code has to work across MTN, Telecel and AirtelTigo, so your USSD service provider provisions and tests it on each network before you go live. Choose something short and memorable that ties back to your brand.

Two guides cover this in depth. How to get a USSD shortcode for your business in Ghana walks through the process, and our buyer’s checklist for choosing a USSD shortcode provider in Ghana covers what to ask before you commit.

Keep the tree under five levels deep, and hold each screen to five to seven options. Use plain words. Your customer is reading this on a small screen with a tight character budget.

A strong menu structure looks like this:

*123#
1. Check Balance
2. Make Payment
3. My Account
4. Promotions
5. Contact Support

Step 4: Integrate With Your Backend Systems

Connect the USSD application to your CRM, payment system or database. This is where a menu becomes a transactional channel. Your provider’s API handles session state through webhooks while your backend returns the data.

Developers building the flow will want our USSD application development guide for Africa.

Step 5: Test Across Networks and Devices

Test on every network your customers use, and on the handsets they actually own. Session behaviour and timeout windows differ between networks, so a flow that completes on one can expire on another.

Step 6: Launch and Monitor

Track completions, drop-off points and transaction volume from day one. Drop-off tells you which screen is costing you customers, and that is the screen to rewrite first.

Launching USSD in Ghana with Arkesel

Arkesel USSD Solutions powers USSD for business across Ghana’s three mobile networks. Arkesel USSD in Ghana gives you shared or dedicated shortcode provisioning, multi-level menus built through the USSD API, and session management handled over webhooks, backed by direct network connections to MTN, Telecel and AirtelTigo.

That combination is what makes a Ghanaian rollout straightforward. One integration reaches customers on all three networks, and those customers pay no data cost to use the service on any handset.

Developer teams build against the Arkesel developer API, with documentation covering session handling, so you can ship a working menu without negotiating telco integrations of your own.

Pair USSD with the Arkesel SMS Platform to confirm every completed session in writing. And when a customer moves from a dialled session into a conversation, KOVA IQ keeps that conversation and the customer record together across WhatsApp, social and live chat.

For current USSD pricing, see the Arkesel pricing page. If you need a dedicated shortcode and an enterprise rollout across all three Ghanaian networks, talk to our team.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is USSD free for customers?

A USSD session uses no mobile data, so a customer with an empty data bundle can still complete one. Whether the session itself carries an operator charge is set per network and per service, so confirm the arrangement for your shortcode with your provider. Current Arkesel USSD pricing is on the pricing page.

How is USSD different from SMS?

SMS is one-way store-and-forward messaging: you send a message, it is delivered, and the exchange ends there. USSD is a live session, so the customer navigates a menu and gets an immediate response inside the same interaction. Use SMS to reach out and to confirm. Use USSD when the customer needs to do something.

Is USSD still relevant in 2026?

Yes. USSD accounted for 63.5% of Africa’s mobile money transaction volume in 2024, and at least 81% of the mobile money services in the GSMA’s 2024 worldwide survey offered USSD for merchant transactions, ahead of app-based payments. It remains the default channel for financial transactions across the continent.

What can a business actually do with USSD?

Self-service, payments, surveys, loyalty and registration are the five patterns that carry the most volume. Anything a customer can complete in a short sequence of menu choices works well. Anything that needs images, long text or file uploads does not.

How do I get a USSD shortcode in Ghana?

You go through a provider connected to MTN, Telecel and AirtelTigo, which provisions the code and tests it across all three networks. Our guide on getting a USSD shortcode in Ghana sets out what to prepare before you apply.

Start Building

USSD is the most underused engagement channel in Ghanaian business. It reaches every handset, costs your customer no data, and turns a dialled code into a completed transaction.

Create your Arkesel account, get your Ghana USSD shortcode, and build your first interactive customer experience. No app required.

USSD for Business in Africa: How to Build Interactive Customer Experiences Without an App

USSD for Business in Africa: How to Build Interactive Customer Experiences Without an App

What Is USSD and Why It Matters for African Businesses