By Dwelleth Morountodun
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), on Tuesday stated that subscribers to telecommunications services lodged 276, 103 complaints between 2015 and 2019.
The Executive Vice Chairman, of the commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, however, said, 95% of the complaints have been successfully resolved.
The EVC spoke at the ongoing African Telecommunication Conference which held in Abuja. He added that the first edition of the programme held in October 2013.
He said: “Since 2013 edition, the conference conceived by the Consumer Affairs Bureau of NCC as an annual event, has not held due to some circumstances, yet, this is a programme that provides opportunity for us to compare notes as regulators.
“It is also instructive that during the 6 years hiatus, the digital space has recorded tremendous evolutionary advancements. This advancement in technologies has, nonetheless, thrown up various issues on the need for regulators to strengthen necessary regulatory valves towards safeguarding the interest of consumer of digital tools and services.”
According to him, the theme: “Empowering the Telecom Consumer in an Era of Technological Evolution” is apt, as it provides another veritable platform for us to discuss the technological evolution that has characterised the telecommunications space in the last 6 years.
He added that it will also help the commission to reach concrete resolutions on how regulators, can better empower the ever-growing consumers of telecoms/Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools and services in the light of the technological advancement in the industry.
The event, he added will act as bridge builder, as the regulators hope to continue to host this amongst themselves annually as telecom regulators.
“We at NCC, being a consumer-centric regulatory organisation, have taken the directions that clearly illustrate the steps of consumer affairs and for this reason, policies such as guidelines, regulations and other intervention mechanisms have been deliberately put in place to grow the telecom industry while empowering and protecting the consumers.
“In view of the important role of telecom consumers in the overall achievements of NCC objectives and the growth of the telecom industry, he added that NCC declared year 2017 as the year of Nigerian Telecom Consumer.” He said.
NCC, according to him, introduced two major initiatives as part of measures to empower the consumers: the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) 2442 Short Code, which the consumers can use to control what they receive on their phones as unsolicited text messages or calls.
He added: “With the DND, consumers have the power to stop all unsolicited messages on their mobile devices or choose specific messages they would like to be getting from service providers.
“I am happy to inform you that, more than 21 million subscribers have signed up for the DND as we continue to create more awareness on it through our various outreach programmes and other stakeholder engagement fora.
“The second initiative in this direction is the NCC 622 Toll-Free Line set up specifically to ensure improvement in service delivery. Consumers can call the 622 number to escalate their unresolved complaints by their service providers for effective resolution through the Commission’s intervention.
Hundreds of ‘complaints’ calls are received and successfully handled to the delight of the consumers on weekly basis, the EVC said.
He said: “In addition, to ensure that our licensees continue to operate as viable businesses delivering value to the consumers, we have commenced aggressive enforcement of compulsory compliance with the NCC’s Code of Corporate Governance for Telecommunications Industry 2016.
“We are also ensuring that telecoms service delivery is improved through continuously monitoring of activities of our licensees in order to treat consumer right and offer them value for their money.
“At NCC, we believe that service delivery on the parts of our licensees in this era of technological evolution should be the totality of how telecoms operating companies package, provide and deliver those services to their consumers from the point of ensuring the right quality of service and to the point of delivering the service to the consumers in a satisfactory manner.
“In other words, the term ‘Service delivery’ embodies such elements as Quality of Service (QoS), Quality of Experience (QoS), Effective Customer Complaint Resolution, conducive ambience for customers at Care Centres (CCCs), absence of nuisance calls or text messages that, sometimes, irritate and annoy consumers, among others.
“Service delivery also has to do with how telecom consumers are treated generally by operators or their agents.”
This year’s edition, according to him, will critically examine, analyse and identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to how telecoms regulators can empower the consumers in this era of technological evolution.
This, he said is because everything NCC does focuses on how the consumers can get maximum value for money spent through effective protection and empowerment with vital information they need to safeguard themselves from being shortchanged by a service provider