NCC’s Dr. Aminu Maida Calls for Consumer-Centric Focus at 93rd Telecoms Consumer Parliament | ClipTV Online

Speaking at the 93rd Telecoms Consumer Parliament, the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr.Aminu Maida said there is the need for a consumer focused telecoms sector. Themed “Optimizing Data Experience: Rotating the event title “Empowering Consumers through Awareness and Transparency in a Consumer-Centric Telecom Industry”, the event was aimed at addressing issues to do with data usage, billing and quality of service.

Agriculturally, Dr. Maida commenced his speech by noting the dramatic evolution of telecommunications sector in Nigeria within the past two decades. He said that the move from simple voice-centric services to high speed data centered services has created awareness ranging from social networking to mobile banking. 5G technology has progressed digital utilization even more hence creating opportunities for smart cities and the internet of things (IoT). Unfortunately, those developments are not without implications connected with the utilisation of data and, in particular, the practices of billing for it.

“Currently, Internet connections in Nigeria are over 132 million, and users spend 4 hours and 20 minutes per day on social media platforms, which are above the global average,” Dr. Maida said using DataReportal. He also noted that the daily data usage in Nigeria is now 336 Gigabytes per Second up from the previous year 39%, which revealed the level of digitalization in Nigeria.

Dr. Maida also said that consumers from all over the world are increasingly worried about data exhaustion and the means of charging this. NCC has also observed that use of HD devices leads to increased data bandwidth usage while complexity of operators’ tariffs remains a source of consumer’s misery. To address these challenges, NCC embarked on a Joint industry campaign for Smarter Data Usage which was deemed to entertain a multi-media campaign over radio, television and social media to educate the citizens on proper management of their data.

Furthermore, the NCC promulgated what it called the ‘Guidance on Tariff Simplification’ which require the telecom operators to provide information on data and tariffs in simple terms. This, Dr. Maida further stated, was designed to empower consumers with the insight required in making decisions about use of their data.

“The better informed the consumer, the less likely they are to be taken in by such things,” Dr. Maida said, encouraging people to check data usage on their smartphone. He pointed out that running applications or back-end processes, high definition streaming and auto update are among the major sources of unanticipated data usage.

At a more general level the NCC has also reviewed industry standards for quality service delivery along the value chain, disciplining infrastructure providers. Dr. Maida also pointed out the recent hurdles of the operators, such as telecommunication asset sabotage and macroeconomic factors affecting the service sector investment. To this end, a Presidential Order that is greeted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently categorized telecom infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure, has boosted the capacity of NCC to guard these properties.

In its bid to ensure that consumers get value for their money through choosing service providers who offer quality services that they are contracted to offer, the Commission proclaimed upcoming coverage maps which would help consumers to get aware of the quality and signal strength of a given service provider in certain geographical locations at any given time in future. Moreover, the NCC will soon launch Major Incident Reporting Guidelines under which operators should notify consumers about major network incidents.

During the closing speech, Dr. Maida insisted to underline the Confirmed Satisfaction meaning that the Telecoms Consumer Parliament is an open forum. “What we envision is a telecom space that is completely retail-orientated where the Nigerian populace feels and is empowered to feel not only gets but is fully satisfied,” he said.

The 93rd Telecoms Consumer Parliament was an opportunity through which the relevant stakeholders met to deliberate on solutions designed and processed towards improving the experiences of the consumers in Nigeria’s evolving telecom sector.