The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the country’s network operators have been given 11 days to come up with ways to improve service quality before being taken to court by consumer organisations.
In an exclusive interview with HumanIPO Babatunde Abiodun, coordinator general of the Consumers Empowerment Organisation of Nigeria (CEON), said they and the United Consumers Association of Nigeria (UCAN) do not believe the NCC’s sanctions on the networks are sufficient and instead compensation should be offered to subscribers.
Abiodun said: “For some time, Nigerian consumers have been complaining about the poor quality of services and NCC has the power to sanction the telecoms operators.
“They also have the power to compel the erring telecoms operators to compensate the subscribers since they are the direct beneficiary of any effect of poor telecoms services.”
Abiodun said his organisation and the UCAN were working on the behalf of subscribers.
According to him, the lawsuit is intended to compel the operators to improve their service quality.
He said: “The telecoms operators have the responsibility to provide quality service to their subscribers. There is no doubt about that.
“The purpose of that sanction is not monetary, but to encourage the companies to provide better quality services – that is the essence of the sanction.
“The need for it is to call the companies to action. If they are not ready to improve, it shows they are not serious and not ready for the Nigerian market.”
Abiodun added the networks have been served a warning and now have until May 6 to come up with ways of improving their service quality and compensate the subscribers.
He also decried the information gap that currently exists between the telcos and consumers.
Abiodun concluded: “This is why we are resorting to litigation to compel them to listen to us. We should be able to easily call them if we have a normal information channel. But now they are not ready.
“They are players while we are watchers. We are the voice of the Nigerian subscribers. We can easily offer them advice on how to improve their service quality. This is only possible when they are ready to listen to us which is what we want to achieve with our action.”
