Nigeria Federal Government To Ban Telecommunications Provider For Poor Service Delivery

The Federal Government is to ban telecoms operators, found to be deceiving subscribers through poor service. The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, made the announcement at a news conference. She said the ministry had commenced collaboration with the CPC {Consumer Protection Service} to discipline operators rendering poor services . "The ministry, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the CPC are now working together to deliver appropriate customer redress to telecommunications subscribers. "These will include but not limited to reduce on airtime, usage irregularities, inaccurate billing and options to move out of unnecessary SMS messages," the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said over 120 millions telecoms subscribers in the country had been at the receiving end of poor service delivery that had made it impossible for them to make or receive calls. The minister said that subscribers had also been at the receiving end of poor customer care lines, unrelenting sales promotions by the networks and deceiving broadband speed adverts by service providers. Omobola said that the imposition of fines on the service providers for which the NCC collected N1.7 billion 22 months ago had not made the companies to provide better services. She noted however, that the ministry had reached out to state governments to reduce the multiple taxation imposed on the telecoms operators, saying that the cost of right of way on federal highways had been reduced by about 90 per cent. "We have also negotiated an agreement with State Governments  to reduce cost of right of way on state highways and for them to also reduce the charges on infrastructure," she stated. She said that the ministry had since reached understanding with the Lagos, Ekiti, Cross River and Rivers Government on outright waivers on some charges imposed on telecoms providers. According to her, the Federal Executive Council has also approved a new bill on  crime which has severe penalties for wanton destruction of telecommunications infrastructure. The NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Dr Eugene Juwah, said the commission had issued a Dec. 31, 2013 deadline to stop telecom operators from selling SIM packs or expanding their networks if they failed to improve services. The Director-General of the CPC, Mrs Dupe Atoki, said the council had constituted a consumer education taskforce to enlighten consumers on their  privileges. Atoki pleaded for more funds from the FG to enable the CPC to work harder to achieve the goals for which it was set for, assuring Nigerians that the company would live up to it value.