NCC urges Telcos to improve telephony services

The Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida, has urged Telcos to improve the quality of service in the telecommunications sector.

The NCC boss made the call at an interactive session with the chief executive officers of the industry in Lagos. He urged the industry chieftains to appreciate that they have a very important role to play in industry to consolidate on the achievements already recorded in the sector, which is an enabler of Nigeria’s digital economy.

Maida, who noted that quality service in the industry is non-negotiable, gave assurances of a commitment to transparency in the telecom ecosystem.

According to the NCC boss, quality of service (QoS) should translate to quality of experience (QoE), stressing that customers’ interests should be prioritised.

“People actually expect telecom services to work. I don’t think they really appreciate what it takes to deliver these services. So, it has come to a stage where they just see telecoms service as a utility like water and electricity. Like a social service, it needs to work. We need to really come together in the industry and deliver value to the customer,” he said.

Maida emphasized the importance of compliance with industry regulations and standards, adding that compliance will be a key area of focus and there will be an urgent need to ensure it.

“So, we owe it to ourselves to benchmark ourselves against the best, not against other sectors. We have to just take ourselves as setting the benchmark for every person else. So, let people compare and say we have to be as good as telecoms,” he said.

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Maida added that the Commission has a tight deadline to achieve a lot in broadband and will rethink the approach to infrastructure company licensing and also explore new ways of approaching the states.

Addressing the Federal Government’s intention to create about two million digital jobs by 2025, the Chairman, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, said, “We need FX. Some of these requests are on your table. We must be in the first line for access to FX, otherwise, all the job creation we are talking about may not be possible if people cannot pay their FX obligation and buy their use applications because of scarcity. So, access to FX has become more than important for us.”

Commending Maida’s move to reposition the sector, Adebayo lamented the impact of the 52 taxes and levies on the sector, saying that all these challenges must be resolved if the sector contributes significantly to the economy.

The President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Tony Emoekpere, said the industry is reassured by the steps that Maida has taken in convening the interactive session.

“We are really encouraged that your first action is to meet with us here at this interactive session. What you have done to invite us here to hear what we have to say is the right step,” he said.