Success Damian:
Executive Secretary, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Ajibola Olude has hailed Nigerian Telecoms consumers saying that they are development partners in the journey to Nigeria’s Digital Economy.
“I want to strongly advise
telecom and ICT consumers that our members may not increase prices of their services
and we shall not abuse consumer protection laws as we see them as development
partners in the journey of developing Nigeria’s Digital Economy,” he stated.
Olude was speaking at the 2nd
Webinar Series on Sustainability, Business and Human Rights themed
"Consumer Protection Amidst the Pandemic – Business and Human Rights Implication"
organized by International Network for Corporate Social Responsibility (IN-CSR)
in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission.
Speaking on the role of
telecommunication companies in protecting consumers’ rights he said that the
role of telecom companies may not be appreciated without considering or
evaluating the structure of the Nigeria telecommunications when it was only
NITEL that served the entire country. He said NITEL was owned by the government
and during this time, NITEL could only boast of less than 500lines.
He said some of the challenges
of government owning telecom companies were Depravation of telephone lines by
Nigerians; Poor contribution to GDP of Nigeria; Less people were employed by
the sector; Lack of professionals in the sector; Poor funding of the sector in
terms of infrastructure development; Large scale corruption and embezzlement, Network
rollout challenges; Restricted choices; Poor quality of service and Poor
service delivery.
On Liberalization Advocacy, he
said ATCON played a key role in terms of advocating for a liberalized market.
Olude appreciated the role of NCC
in enhancing Telecoms growth and development in Nigeria saying, “The Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC) was established by law in November 1992 to
regulate and put the telecom industry on the growth path.“
On Advantages of Telecom
Sector reform, he disclosed that efficient and effective service delivery, migration
from government owned and control telecom companies to private owned companies,
increase in local and international telecom financing, high creativity and
innovation were the hallmarks of private ownership of telecom companies. He
also stressed the reduction in underserved and unserved areas and higher
contribution to GDP of the country.
Olude spoke on the importance
of Consumers saying “Consumers are kings and our member companies will continue
to treat them as kings through effective service delivery “Our members are
working very hard to make sure that all telecom consumers have value for every
kobo spent on telecom services”
Speaking on consumer
education, Olude said “All our members have been educating consumers on how
they can use their data effectively.” He cautioned them on the use of
applications saying “The more apps you have on your phone the quicker your data
will be consumed.”
On Telecoms Consumers’ rights
he enumerated various Rights Protection Initiatives which include Per-seconds billing, Cancellation of Airtime
and data validity period - Airtime and Data Roll-over, Mobile number
portability, Do-Not-Disturb, Improved
and efficient customers’ complaint platforms, and Improved Customers’
experience.
He said Part of protecting the
consumers’ right led to the development of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation
(NDPR) 2019 which stopped the unauthorized sharing of Nigerians data and
protected Nigerians on the web.
He said Consumers are the life
blood of business “So we take them with all sense of seriousness, we have not
worked until consumers are satisfied,” Olude stated
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