NCC threatens to sanction telecoms operators for poor services
Prof. Umar Dambatta, Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday threatened to sanction telecommunications operators performing below the industrial average with consistently poor service delivery.
This happened at the investigative session by the Ahmed Abu- headed House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc Committee investigating activities of telecoms equipment, service companies and vendors in the country.
Dambatta revealed that the key performance indicators (PKIs) of the NCC when applied to the services of the telcos showed that they were under performing, adding that the not-too-good performance got to the highest level especially in the months of October, November and December 2016.
“We invited the operators and laid bare what was happening to the quality of service, which has degenerated to unacceptable level. NCC will be taking compliance action to compel the service providers to provide acceptable standard of service delivery”, he said.
“The NCC is going to impose sanction, and there will be ranking on the quality of service, so that Nigerians will know which to patronise”, he added.
Dambatta, though, said he was aware of the service providers’ complaints of lack of infrastructure, denial of right of way and the dearth of foreign exchange to procure telecoms equipment.
On the recent job losses in the sector, Prof Dambatta said the commission was concerned, but its mandate does not empower it to dabble into labour issues. “It is outside the mandate of the commission. It is regulated by a different ministry; we liaise with the Ministry of Labour and Employment”, he said.
The chairman of the committee said the committee has already written to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ascertain the issue of repatriated funds by telcos and others.
“The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige is also to appear before the committee to explain aspects that has to do with job losses in the sector”, he said.
The committee is also mandated to investigate the audited accounts of all registered telecoms and IT companies; evidence of compliance with statutory obligations, frequencies monitoring report for GSM and microwave as well as dropped calls.
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