NCC to sanction telcos for poor services
Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson
The Nigerian Communications Commission has said that it will impose sanctions on mobile operators that continue to deliver poor quality of service to its subscribers.
The regulatory agency, which expressed disappointment at the failure of mobile operators to meet Key Performance Indicators agreed with operators, also disclosed that it received about 50, 0000 complaints from dissatisfied customers on daily basis.
This is coming as MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, in Abuja said it had spent more than N9bn on Corporate Social Responsibility projects in the country.
Speaking with newsmen at the Fourth Quarter Meeting of the Industry Consumer Advisory Forum, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management at NCC, Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, said mobile operators were failing in the measurement of quality of service conducted by NCC on monthly basis.
Itanyi said the regulatory agency had been meeting with the operators on Key Performance Indicators and their rating after monthly monitoring of their performance, adding that the agency would sanction operators that failed to quickly address the issue of poor services.
He said, "Today, there is a paradigm shift from mere service provision to ensuring that consumer satisfaction ranks highest in our priorities as a nation in the provision of ICT goods and services."
The Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau at NCC, Mrs. Maryam Bayi, said the call centres opened by the NCC received about 50, 000 complaints daily from subscribers to telecommunications services.
Bayi who represents NCC at the Industry Consumer Advisory Forum said the regulatory agency had asked mobile operators to stop bombarding subscribers with unsolicited text messages but that that operators still did this subtly through promotions approved by the agency.
She said that although 50, 000 complaints received from the call centres opened to take customers' complaints were high on the surface, she said the magnitude paled with more than 120 million lines in the country.
Also speaking at the celebration of International Day of Persons Living with Disabilities in Abuja, Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation, Nonny Ugboma, said the company had invested over N9bn in executing projects in 338 sites across the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.
She said, "We have commenced a fourth phase of our Disability Support Project. Apart from the regular distribution of mobile aids and appliances, we will also be distributing new mobile aids such as talking phones for blind people, stylus and mar bugs and calipers for polio patients.
"I am pleased to announce that the distribution ceremony for the FCT under the phase four will take place in Abuja next week and 400 beneficiaries have been verified and they will be receiving items such as wheelchairs, tricycles, crutches, talking phones, etc."
Also at a forum in Abuja, the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson said 60 per cent of the personal computers sold in the country in 2012 were HP and Dell brands alone while local Original Equipment Manufacturers accounted for only about 20 per cent.
She said as the nation seeks to aggressively roll out Internet services, the citizenry could only enjoy the Internet if local content was increased.
