From the ATCON Sectoral Virtual Forum that was held on Thursday, August 6, 2020, via Zoom and other social media platforms, we discussed in a previous post that the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) reiterated the commission’s effort in meeting the needs of the Government.
In this edition that continues the article, we take a look at how the NCC is meeting the Interest of Telecom Consumers for Digital Economy Development in COVID-19 Era.
On this, the EVC discussed the challenges faced by Telecom consumers spanning through 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020, while stating how the Commission is protecting and empowering the consumers.
In 2015 when the NCC initiated the Do Not Disturb (DND) code (2442), less than 500, 000 subscribed to the code.
Moving forward, the code saw an increase in subscription as the numbers spiked to 21,704,061 in 2018, 22,196,712 in 2019 and 22,722,366 in 2020.
From 2015 to 2018, a dedicated toll-free line (622) received:
- 276,112 complaints
- 262,306 representing 95% of the complaints successfully resolved
- 13,806 representing 5% of the remaining complaints escalated
Within the stated year above, the year 2017 was referred as the year of the consumer.
Moving forward from 2019-2020, the dedicated toll-free line (622) received:
- 26,169complaints
- 25,572representing 98%of the complaints successfully resolved
- 597representing 2%of the remaining complaints escalated
This development has clearly shown the resolve of the Commission in putting the interest of the consumer above all.
However, from 2015 till date, the Commission has also ensured:
- Mobile number portability (mnp) –1,111,197 subscribers have utilized the service
- Telecoms consumer parliament (tcp) -88 tcps so far held
- Consumer outreach programme (cop) -110 cops so far held
- Web portal–an alternative online channel for lodging complaints, accessed here
- Issuance of direction to service providers on data roll-over which enables consumers to roll over unused data for a period of time ranging from 1-7 days depending on data plan.
- Review of consumer code of practice regulations, 2007 -the draft review of the regulation is being concluded for publications and industry adoption
Watch out for the next edition of NCC’s interest of Telecom Operators for Digital Economy Development in COVID-19 era.
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