Why telecom service providers should leverage on NCC’s user-friendly policies in delivery

With active mobile telecom subscribers of 220 million, Nigeria is the biggest telecom market in Africa and that translates to a good Return on Investment (RoI) for the investors in the industry. This is the primary reason Nigeria’s telecom sector should not be taken for granted, hence, the stance of the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida that service providers will be made accountable for poor service delivery to customers was not just a welcome development, but should be seen to be carried out to the later.

Penultimate week, Dr. Maida stated at a breakfast meeting with some Reporters and Business Editors in Abuja that the regulatory agency would put a proper mechanism in place to ensure that the telecom service providers are made accountable in order to meet the minimal expectations of consumers.

The NCC boss who is barely four months in office had shown capacity and passion for quality service. He has assured service providers of robust policies that will drive the vision of their businesses, hence, it is not out of place for the providers to have themselves brace up for a paradigm shift in telecom business.

To provide quality service for Nigerians in line with the global best practices, installation of infrastructure and replacement of obsolete ones would be ideal as the lack of quality service by some major service providers tended to discredit the effort of government in the telecom sector.

For quite sometime, call drops and voice loss with deduction of subscriber’s credit has been a menace and should be stopped. Hiding under the challenge of the lack of electricity, insecurity and other social malaise to provide poor service to subscriber run low of the service providers’ performance. As much as the onus lie on government to ensure secured environment for safety of telecom infrastructure, their collaboration with agencies of government was also to their own advantage as it afford them opportunity of seamless operation of their businesses.

At different fora, Dr Maida sought for collaboration of staff of the agency and the Ministry, service providers and other critical stakeholders in the telecom sector in order to provide quality service to the nation. If this is observed to the latter, it will create a win-win situation.

We do hope that the National Assembly will also intervene in enacting and amending laws that would add value to the regulatory powers of NCC.