By Jessica Dogo, ABUJA
Dr Aminu Maida, the Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has stated that henceforth the commission would hold telecom service providers accountable for poor service delivery to customers.
Maida said this in a speech during the maiden meeting with the Nigerian Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA), Abuja Chapter, on Tuesday in Abuja.
The EVC said the commission would hold telecom service providers accountable because consumers paid for their services and service providers must meet their minimal expectations.
He said that the commission would look at its processes with a view to revamping them as well as leveraging technologies to be more efficient, to deliver regulatory services and reduce internal costs.
“You are going to see a change in the way we make decisions, we are going to be very data-driven. All our decisions are going to be backed up by data as much as possible.
“We want to reduce subjectiveness and take the right decisions that will improve the industry.
“When there is regulation without any consequences or enforcements on obligations, you will agree with me that the chances of being met are very low.
“So we will drive towards delivering optimal quality of experience for our customers.”
On compliance and enforcement, he said the commission would focus more on the consumer government, licensees and the industry.
“I have spoken about compliance and enforcement but we will also first of all be collaborators, we will place a very high premium of collaboration with all critical stakeholders to ensure everybody is carried along in a co-creative process.”
He said it would try to create win-win scenarios for everybody; but if that was not possible, all the licensees had an obligation to enforce compliance.
“The commission also will be driven by their recognition that we have primarily three critical stakeholders in the industry.
“These are the consumers of telecom services, the industry and the licensees (the telcos, the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), submarine landed cable companies and all of the licensees of the commission) and last but not the least, the government.
“What we recognise is that each of these stakeholders has a unique perspective and has different expectations.
“Our approach will thus walk towards meeting the expectations of these stakeholders and everything starts with the consumer.”
The EVC said that the expectations of the consumer were very simple and that is quality of service.
Commenting on collaboration between industry players, he said the commission had resolved the issue between two major players.
‘The issues between two of the top big operators which hopefully sometime we will be making a statement to let Nigerians and other stakeholders know that the two titans have sat down between themselves and resolved their issues.
“We are going to be putting in measures to ensure they do not get to that stage again.
Like I said we need to foster collaboration before we get to compliance and enforcement.
“And for our licensees, the commission is committed to making life easier for them; so we are going to be doing a lot of advocacy, working with the minister,” he said.
The President of NITRA, Mr Blessing Olaifa, expressed optimism that the EVC would not regret engaging the media in covering the commission’s activities.
He thanked the commission for a fruitful gathering and reiterated having a continuous working relationship with the NCC. (NAN)
