Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja
The Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, has vowed that NCC will henceforth hold telecoms service providers accountable for poor service delivery to customers.
Maida made the promise during a breakfast meeting with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.
The commission, he said, will hold telecoms service providers accountable because consumers pay for their services, adding that telecos must meet their minimal expectations.
“You are going to see a change in the way we make decisions; we are going to be very data-driven. All our decisions are going to be backed up by data as much as possible. We want to reduce subjectiveness and take the right decisions that will improve the industry.
“We intend to hold our licensees accountable for all services. Afterall, the consumers pay for the services and they expect the service to be at a certain level or point so we will be holding our licensees accountable to ensure they deliver as per their obligations to their licenses,” he said.
On compliance and enforcement, he said:
“Last week, I spoke about compliance and enforcement but we will also first of all be collaborators. We will place a very high premium on collaboration with all critical stakeholders including yourselves to ensure that everybody is carried along in a cooperative process so that we can try to create win-win scenarios for everybody.
“But of course if that is not possible all the licensees have an obligation and we will not be shy to enforce for the clients.”
Maida added that the commission would focus more on the consumer, government and licensees and the industry.
“The commission also will be driven by the recognition that we have primarily three critical stakeholders in the industry. These are the consumers of telecom services, the industry and the licensees. And the topmost, the internet service provider (ISPs), submarine landed cable companies, and all of the licensees of the commission and last but not the least, the government.
“What we recognise is that each of these stakeholders has a unique perspective and has different expectations. Our approach will thus be to work towards the expectations of these stakeholders and everything,” he noted.
On quality of service to the consumer, Maida said: “For me, the expectation of the consumer is very simple — quality of service. I don’t think you can say anything more than that — quality of service; and this quality of service we are talking about is a total consumer experience not just the drop call or I can’t make a call.
“There is a total quality of experience right from how do you find and select the right network to use, how do you onboard onto that network talking about SIM registration process, process of linking your SIM to your NIN and of course after you have gone through all of that when you are using it.
“How easy is it for you to select a tariff? How transparent is the tariff, how are you supported by the entire host, how do you onboard from the network?”
Speaking on collaboration between industry players, he said the commission had resolved the issue between two major players and that the NCC will soon issue a statement to that effect.
“We are going to be putting in measures to ensure they don’t get to that stage again. And like I said, we need to foster collaboration before we get to compliance and enforcement. And for our licensees, the commission is committed to making life easier for them so we are going to be doing a lot of advocacy.
“The fourth is digitalisation. So we are going to be looking at the processes with a view to also leveraging technology to make us more efficient and deliver our regulatory services in a more efficient manner and also reduce our own internal operating cost,” Maida added.
