By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) have pledged to strengthen collaborations between the two government agencies for the benefit of consumer even as the NCC tasks operators on improving services in the year the telecom regulator has declared as a ‘Year of the Consumer’.
The Director General of CPC, Mr. Babatunde Irukera said, during a recent courtesy visit to the management of the NCC in Abuja, that it was in consumers’ interest that the two agencies worked together towards improving the quality of consumer experience. Irukera requested for a new MoU between the two organisations in that regard.
Irukera who had also attended the workshop on ‘Enforcement of Code of Corporate Governance for the Telecom Industry’ organised by NCC in Lagos a fortnight ago said he was at the NCC’s headquarters in Abuja to solicit for partnership to improve quality of consumer experience.
Apparently pleased by the novelty and nobility of the idea of Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumer, as well as the zeal with which NCC has prosecuted the components of the campaign, Irukera was full of praises for NCC for its commitment to the declaration of putting the consumer first.
Responding, Mr. Sunday Dare, the Executive Commissioner Stakeholder Management at the NCC, thanked Irukera for the visit and informed his guest that the Management of the Commission made the declaration to emphasize the fact that the consumer is the lifeblood of the telecom industry and to reiterate the primacy of the consumer among several stakeholders in the telecom sector.
Dare enumerated the challenges in the telecom sector that impinge on the quality of service such as, vandalism of telecom infrastructure, dearth of foreign exchange needed by the operators to sustainably service their operations, multiple taxation, and multiple regulation among others. Despite these challenges, Mr. Dare said NCC continued to ensure that each operator kept an eye on the Key Performance Indicators.
Dare assured the Director General of CPC that when next the Commission is meeting the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to deliberate on KPIs and QoS, CPC may be invited to participate at the meeting.
