Telecoms Regulator Denies Nigerian Subscribers Benefits Of Service Penalty

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said it cannot transfer or allocate to mobile subscribers the N647 million ($3.9 million) cash penalty it imposed on three of the country’s mobile service operators – MTN, Airtel and Globacom – for poor quality of service.

The sanction was based on the statistics obtained from the network operating centres of the companies, which indicated that the service provided by the operators fell below the Key Performance Index (KPI) as set by the commission in 2013.  This resulted in the sanction which the operators have complied with.  However, a percentage of the public have questioned NCC’s collection of the money on behalf of the subscribers since they are the recipients of poor quality of service.

Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), refuted this, saying the act under which the commission was set up does not authorize them to transfer such monies.  “There is nothing in our law that empowers NCC to share money that is paid as penalty. It is just like someone who is fined by a court of law. They don’t give the money to the plaintiff, the money is paid into government coffers.”

He added that service providers can give airtime to subscribers as compensation, but that might not improve the quality of service offered. According to him, paying such huge amounts for penalties will force operators to improve service.

Although the NCC Director of Consumer Affairs, Mrs. Maryam Bayi, said even if refund will be made to subscribers, they will get nothing more than N12 or N15, with a total subscriber base of about 127 million and N647 million ($3.9 million) paid in penalties, the money would be enough to compensate all subscribers adequately with a lump sum left.

Copyright Ventures Africa 2014