The National Communication Commission (NCC) has reiterated its resolve to put telecom consumers at the heart of its services.
It also hinted that GSM subscribers using illegal SIM cards have up to the end of this month (February) to do the needful or get deregistered.
These formed part of the highlights of the parley the NCC management team had with editors Monday in Abuja.
Responding to some questions and issues raised by the editors, Executive Vice Chairman NCC Dr Aminu Maida said the commission would continue to put the consumers at the centre of its services.
Similarly, he said the agency would also strive to protect the interest of service providers in accordance with the Act establishing the commission and also ensure revenue for the government in like manner, describing this as “delicate balancing” that must be achieved.
While promising to be accountable, Maida pleaded with the media for fairness in its reportage of the commission’s activities.
“We need to put back smile on the faces of the consumers. There is going to be transparency around tariffs, we are still working out modalities. Two of them(service providers) have concluded plans to engage audit firms to audit their billing systems. Another area that came up strongly during our engagement with stakeholders is our digital life, this has become more critical to our ways of doing things , we don’t realise that we go for the latest phone which at the slightest touch, responds and this consumes more data. That’s an area that we also want more awareness.
“I’m dwelling on the consumers because that’s the heart of the matter. If we don’t put smile on the faces of the consumers, then there will be challenge. We have a responsibility to make the industry more resilience. We need to go into the phase of maturity to strengthen the institutions that will support the commission in achieving its corporate responsibility. Cross industry collaboration is an area we are working on,” Maida said.
In doing this, the NCC boss said, “the interest of the licensees, as in accordance with the Act , must also be protected. Remember, we are also out for investments. And on the side of the government, we are also expected to generate revenue. On the whole, we will be plugging into the systems of the operators to know what’s available.”
He further said: “This is my approach in terms of how to guide the industry in the next couple of years. We are at the base of all services. We will support government’s digital public infrastructure drive, bridge the rural digital urban divide, and grow the telecom industry.
“My plea is that we are one family, let’s be fair to each other, hold us accountable and give us a chance . You know this is a challenging time. I am not a messiah, but we can do a little to make things better.”
On the area of security, particularly how illegal SIM cards got operational, the NCC boss there’s an existing collaboration among the security agencies and other enablers, adding “we can’t come up with what we are doing” so the criminals don’t get enabled.
Speaking further on the illegal SIM cards, the director in charge of compliance, monitoring and enforcement, Efosa Idehen, recalled that the decision to link the SIM card to NIN (National Identity Number) in 2021 was not yielding expected results because of “value chain compromise.”
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