Lamido of Adamawa urges reduction in telecom services cost

Muhammadu Mustapha, Lamido of Adamawa has urged the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to consider exploring areas that can lead to a reduction in the cost of telecom services and ensure services are available in most parts of the country.

Mustapha represented by Abubakar Tahir, the Kakakin Adamawa at the Consumer Conversation programme of the Commission with the theme: “Know Your Rights as Telecom Consumers” in Yola, said the event marked a privilege for individual telecom consumers and businesses in the state to ask questions and get a face-to-face response from the regulator on telecom-related issues.

“The Commission should kindly look inwards and ensure that all communities in the country continue to enjoy cheaper, better, qualitative and more accessible telecommunications services,” he said.

He commended the commission on a range of its telecom consumer protection initiatives, including the recent Village Square Dialogue (VSD), which was held recently in Yola, Adamawa State.

“We must commend the NCC for the great work it has been doing in the area of consumer education and enlightenment. Aside from being the regulator of the sector, the NCC leadership has taken the issue of consumer information very central; and we thank you for bringing this laudable initiative to the good people of Adamawa.”

Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman of the commission represented by Alkasim Umar, director of Consumer Affairs, said the regulator has always been at the forefront of ensuring maximum protection for telecom consumers while providing the enabling environment for the licensed service providers to be able to provide good quality of service to the consumers.

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“The NCC remains committed to its mandate of protecting, informing and educating consumers of telecoms services across all the 36 states of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory. This essence of the Village Square Dialogue, as one of our outreach events, is to provide a face-to-face interaction among the NCC, the service providers and the consumers,” Umar said.

Speaking on some of the consumer-centric initiatives of the Commission, Umar said the Commission recently introduced the harmonised shortcodes which provide uniform codes for telecom consumers to access any consumer service type across all networks, either for airtime loading, checking airtime balance, call centres, data plan balance, and so on.

He also reminded the consumers of the availability of the NCC Toll-Free Number, 622, which consumers can use to make complaints to the Commission on any telecom service-related issues they may be having with their service providers; the 112 Emergency Number to seek during emergencies, as well as the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) 2442 Short Code to block unsolicited messages.

The chairman said everything in the current digital world revolves around telecommunications services and that educating consumers plays an important role in informing them, clarifying issues, and empowering them through information and enlightenment.