Success Damian:
According to Danbatta, the debt was accumulated
subsequent upon the regulator’s suspension of its determination on USSD pricing
in 2019.
Danbatta made the disclosure at ATCON’s virtual
forum, which has the theme ‘Meeting the Interests of Government, Consumers and
Telecoms Companies in the Era of Covid-19 and Post COVID-19 Pandemic for
Digital Economy Development’ on Thursday.
He said that to protect the interests of consumers
and support a strong telecommunications sector, the commission has revised the
determination on the USSD.
Danbatta said that the Minister of Communications
and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, had already been briefed on the
development with a view to ensuring a speedy settlement of the debt.
He enumerated the commission’s efforts at resolving
consumer-related issues, noting that when the commission introduced the
Do-Not-Disturb code in 2015, less than 500,000 people activated the code.
Danbatta said there are now 22,722,366 lines on the
DND, stating that 98 per cent of the total service-related complaints received
from telecoms consumers within a 15-month period, spanning January 2019 to
April 2020, had been successfully resolved by the commission.
On quality service delivery, Danbatta said, “The
commission has monthly engagements with operators as well as quarterly industry
working group on quality of service and short codes, and is currently monitoring
2G Key Performance Indicators, while the KPIs for 4G are being prepared.”
On his part, the Minister of Communications and
Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, disclosed that an executive order with objective
of protecting telecommunications infrastructure across the country would soon
be ready, adding that the executive order for protecting telecommunications
infrastructure across the country which had been reviewed by the relevant
authorities was awaiting presidential assent.
Pantami also stated that his administration was devoted
to the protection of the right of consumers, especially telecom consumers who
were struggling to survive in the country.
He maintained that his ministry was harmonizing the
right of way (RoW) charges based on agreement reached with the Nigerian
Governor’s Forum (NGF).
Danbatta called on MNOs not to compromise on the
agreement by paying exorbitant RoW charges to state governments, adding that
they should report illegal taxes to the ministry for appropriate resolution.
Olusola Teniola, President ATCON in his Welcome Address said that it should be emphasized that interdependence and collaboration among the government, telecom and ICT Companies and Nigerians are clearly necessary but each of separate stakeholder has limitations and potentials hence the forum is expected to make an attempt to address the challenges and turn them to advantage for the development of Telecom and ICT Sector in the era of COVID-19 and Post COVID-19 Pandemic.
At the event also attended by Mr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General of NITDA, Teniola said that ATCON was providing veritable platform for Governments, Consumers (corporate and personal) and Telecommunications and ICT Companies to rub minds on how consumers could be better off in terms of effective delivery of telecoms and ICT services and products in Nigeria, to attract further investment into the sector through consumerism and enactment of friendly policies and regulation by the Government. “We are sure that our members would use the feedback(s) from this forum to improve and model their service delivery going forward.”
According to Teniola the event would
not have been possible without the support of Federal Ministry of Communications
and Digital Economy, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), the National
Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), IHS, VDT Communications,
IpNX Limited, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), PPC Limited,
Galaxy Backbone, MainOne, Pan African Towers Limited, Medallion Communications,
NIGCOMSAT and Layer3 Limited.
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