Business
By Benprince Ezeh
IN the last four years, the Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, has intensified efforts at protecting and empowering consumers of telecoms services by developing new and sustaining existing initiatives in a new direction. Some of these initiatives include the popularisation of mobile number portability, MNP, service to give consumers wider choice to migrate from one network to another without changing their original line and also helped consumers from indiscriminately purchasing Subscriber Identity Module, SIM, cards to achieve their objective of being on another network that offer better service delivery.
Realnews reports that this is part of the effort by the NCC to demonstrated unflinching commitment to consumers in terms of consumer complaints resolution. For instance, through the creation of the Toll-Free Number, 622, as a second-level mechanism for consumer complaints resolution, telecoms consumers have found it easier to escalate any service-related complaints they might have to the Commission for prompt resolution.
A recent report by NCC shows that between January 2017 and December 2018, for instance, the commission received a total of 118,784 complaints from consumers, of which a total of 92,757, representing 78 percent of total complaints received during the two years period, were successfully resolved to the satisfaction of telecom consumers.
Also, in the last four years, the commission has sustained periodic consumer engagement, on a continuous basis, through its various outreaches such as the Telecoms Consumer Parliament, TCP, the Consumer Outreach Programme, COP, the Consumer Town Hall Meeting, CTM, the Elite Forum as well as its Consumer Conversation forum, among others.
The declaration of 2017 as Year of the Consumer was another giant step by the Commission. The philosophy of this initiative dedicated 2017 and beyond to address critical issues affecting telecom, consumers in the industry. It is, therefore, interesting to note that since the 2017 declaration, NCC’s efforts at implementing consumer-centric initiatives have increased. This underscores the importance the Commission places on consumer a critical stakeholder in the telecoms value chain.
A similar report by the Commission showed that between January 2019 and October 2019 alone, a total of 19,841 complaints were received from telecoms consumers across its various consumer complaints channels. Of these, the NCC successfully resolved a total of 17,851, representing a 90 percent success rate of consumer complaints resolution during the period. It is noteworthy that a total of 18, 717 complaints were lodged to the Commission through the NCC Contact Centre. Little wonder, then, that based on the satisfaction they enjoyed in getting their complaints resolved by the Commission, a total of 19,345 satisfied consumers sent notes of commendation/appreciation to the Commission via phone calls made to the NCC Contact Centre and e-mails received via the NCC Consumer Portal. All of these were to appreciate the various regulatory interventions that helped them in satisfactorily resolving their service-related issues. Consumer exposure to unsolicited text messages has declined drastically through the popularisation by the Commission and the resultant activation of the DND facility by the subscribers. The DND facility has significantly helped the consumers to control unsolicited text messages. As of October 2019, a total of 22,356, 919 subscribers have activated the DND service either fully or partially.
Further to its consumer-centric regulatory approach, the commission has, so far, issued a number of regulatory Directions to operators. They include the direction on data roll-over, which enables consumers to roll over unused data for period of time, ranging from one day to seven days, depending on their data plan; and the direction on forceful subscription of data services and VAS, which directs service providers to desist from forceful/automatic renewal of data services without prior consent of subscribers. All these have continued to positively impact on the consumer’s quality of experience, QoE.
Also in 2019, the commission stepped up operators’ compliance with service level agreement with respect to consumer complaints management. In 2019, for instance, the NCC revised its Consumer Complaints & Service Level Agreement (CC/SLA) for the purpose of improving consumer complaint management and resolution by the service providers in a much prompter manner. More importantly, the focus of the NCC’s Industry Consumer Advisory Forum, ICAF’s Open Forum held in the fourth quarter of 2019 was how to further protect the consumers with respect to financial frauds committed by criminals using telecoms platforms.
As a testament of its “multi-stakeholder spirit’ and in continuation of its efforts towards strengthening inter-agency collaboration, the NCC, in November 2019, inaugurated a 26-member multi-sectoral committee to combat the issue of financial frauds using telecoms or digital platforms.
The 26-man committee drew membership from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, the NCC, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System, NIBSS, National Identity Management Commission, NIMC and the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, ALTON.
Other organizations with representation on the Committee include the banks, security agencies such as the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Independent Corrupt Practices, and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Nigeria Police Force, NPF, Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU and the Federal Ministry of Justice.
– Jan. 14, 2020 @ 17:39 GMT |
Tags: empowers telecom consumers NCC popularises Mobile Number Portability
