The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) moves to put an end to fast broadband data consumption and wrong deduction of consumers’ credit by Mobile Operators.
The commission aims to achieve these through its ongoing forensic audit.
Disclosing this at the MoneyReport magazine Award recently held in Abuja, The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, emphasized on consumer’s protection being the key focus of the Commission.
“Consumer’s protection remains a key focus area of the Commission’s regulatory activities, and so it has accomplished significant improvements in this direction through various initiatives aimed at putting mobile operators on their toes to be more consumer-centric.”
He further explained that “The Commission plans to get to the bottom of why consumers are experiencing data depletion and the possibility of compensating them for wrong deductions, which may arise from short message service (SMS).”
“We have instituted and we have insisted that despite the fall in data price, that forensic audit must go on and must be concluded and the outcome communicated to the CEOs of telecom companies”, Danbatta said.
While appealing to Nigerians to wait for the outcome of the ongoing forensic audit, Danbatta said operators will be made to comply with the decisions of the commission in order to ensure maximum protection of telecom consumers.
He, however, noted that the Commission has developed Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on data exhaustion, which are designed to inform consumers on activities that may result in quick exhaustion of their data as well as enlighten them on measures to mitigate such. The FAQs are accessible from the Commission’s website.
Over the years, NCC has given boost to consumer protection empowerment through sustained awareness creation and education on consumer rights and privileges. It was for this reason that the Commission declared the year 2016 as the ‘Year of the Consumer’ with elaborate programmes/initiatives to further underscore NCC’s commitment to consumer protection, information and education.
Among the several initiatives, Danbatta said the introduction of the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) has helped over 30 million consumers to block unsolicited text messages on their phones while stern regulatory actions are constantly taken by the regulator against any operator that prevents a consumer from subscribing to the DND service.
Also, the EVC said the Commission launched the 622 Toll-free Number, which consumer can use to lodge and escalate service-related complaints to the Commission for resolution, stating that thousands of complaints have been successfully resolved since its introduction.
He further restated the commitment of NCC to the protection and empowerment of the over 208 million active telecom consumers in the country.
According to him, consumers remain critical stakeholders in the Nigerian telecommunications sector and must be adequately protected to ensure sustainability.
