2019: NCC’s regulatory feats [3]

2019: NCC’s regulatory feats [3]

While there may be lull in other sectors of the economy, the telecoms sector has remained consistent, recording greater feats courtesy of regulatory excellence of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) under the leadership of Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta. For the Commission, 2019 has been particularly eventful.
   
   
   
       
       
           
               
                   

While there may be lull in other sectors of the economy, the telecoms sector has remained consistent, recording greater feats courtesy of regulatory excellence of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) under the leadership of Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta. For the Commission, 2019 has been particularly eventful.

               
           
               
                   

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), in 2019, carried out a number of regulatory activities towards ensuring increased access to telecoms services, increased consumer education and protection, boosting security of lives and property, sanitising the industry while also driving other initiatives aimed at boosting innovation in the telecoms sector and continuously galvanising the country’s overall economic growth.

               
           
               
                   

Improving quality of service

               
           
               
                   

In line with its continuous commitment to ensuring that telecoms operators deliver consistently improved QoS to their over 179 million subscribers, the NCC, in the course of 2019, embarked on a series of initiatives that have relatively helped in boosting the quality of service delivery across mobile networks. Through continuous monitoring of operators’ compliance with the Key Performance Indicator (KPS) on Quality of service (QOS) on a state-by-state level, as against measuring operators’ compliance on a national average basis, the regulator helped to boost QoS delivery in this regards.

               
           
               
                   

Increased consumer protection

               
           
               
                   

Stepping up measures with respect of consumer complaints resolution was one initiative the Commission took very seriously in 2019. For instance, the Commission revised its Consumer Complaints & Service Level Agreement (CC/SLA) to improve consumer complaint management and resolution in a more promptly manner by the service providers. Similar efforts championed by the Danbatta-led NCC in the course of 2019 towards addressing consumer issues, was the inauguration of a multi-sectoral committee to combat the issue of financial frauds using telecoms or digital platforms. More importantly, the thematic direction of the NCC’s Open Forum of the Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF) for the of fourth quarter of 2019 was targeted at addressing areas of protection for the consumers with respect to financial frauds committed by criminals using telecoms platforms.

               
           
               
                   

Promoting ICT Innovations for economic growth

               
           
               
                   

In keeping with its ongoing tradition of driving technology innovations through funding relevant researches in tertiary institutions, the Commission, in May 2019, announced N40 million endowment funds for Bayero University, Kano (BUK) and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) The fund will be utilized by the institutions to drive for innovation, research and development in the digital space with an ongoing commitment to expand the list of benefiting institutions.

               
           
               
                   

A month after, precisely in June, the Commission, again, demonstrated its determination to facilitating research and innovation in the telecom industry in Nigeria by presenting the sum of N65 million to eleven (11) universities in Nigeria for driving innovation, research and development. Through the funding, the benefitting tertiary institutions are expected to deliver research results and prototypes that are implementable, commercially-viable and capable of engendering innovation in different sectors of the economy. The NCC continues to support young innovators by showcasing their innovations at global telecoms fora such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecoms World. Organising local competition for innovators to competitively encourage them to develop locally-relevant tech innovations that can help grow the economy was part of the NCC’s efforts at promoting ICT innovations.

               
           
               
                   

Remarkable decrease in Call Masking activities

               
           
               
                   

Following the enforcement by the Commission for telcos to deploy technology solution across their networks, cases of call-masking or call refiling has reduced drastically. Call masking is when inbound international calls terminate in Nigeria as local number. The Commission quickly noticed that this raises security concerns, competition issue and portends negative economic implications. The NCC has, since, swung into action; as series of regulatory measures have been taken towards curbing the menace of call masking. They include strict compliance monitoring and enforcement by the Commission; imposition of appropriate sanctions by the Commission on licensees involved in call refiling and masking activities; and suspension of numbering plans of some perpetrators and withdrawal of all their inactive numbering plans.

               
           
               
                   

According to the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, other measures taken in this regard include the continuous sensitisation of consumers and other industry stakeholders on the dangers of call masking, which is still ongoing; the development and institution of new reporting requirements on interconnecting licensees that makes it easy and seamless to quickly identify perpetrators of call masking. SO far, the technology solutions deployed by the telecoms companies is now helping to monitor, report, apprehend and block SIMs being used for SIM boxing activities and prevent SIM lines from being used for call masking activities. Through the deployment of the technology solutions and continuous monitoring by the Commission for compliance throughout 2019, cases and consumer relating to call-masking has come to zilch.

               
           
               
                   

Putting NCC’s Head Office Annex in Mbora, Abuja to use

               
           
               
                   

Among several other internal initiatives embarked upon by the Commission to engender operational efficiency as telecoms regulator in 2019 was the inauguration of a five-storey building constructed by Commission, essentially meant to complement its Maitama Headquarters Building. Located at 1253 Cadastral Zone, Mbora District, Abuja, the project had been abandoned for a long period for lack of funds to complete the massive structure.

               
           
               
                   

Today, besides providing nearly a hundred-room office accommodation, it was built with facilities such as swimming pool, lawn tennis courts, underground car parks and a 600-seater auditorium for conferences and seminars. No fewer than five departments of the Commission have since moved into the new building now called NCC Head Office Annex, using the world-class facilities and this has improved their operational efficiency. The move has also helped to significantly decongest the Head Office Building of the Commission located at Maitama District, Abuja for effective regulatory operations. More importantly, the continuous hosting of most of the Commission’s activities inside the 600-seater auditorium architecturally situated within the new building is now resulting in appreciable cost-saving for the Commission. This move, thus, gives concrete expression to the Commission’s compliance with the cost-cutting measures of the Federal Government as directed by the supervising ministry.

               
           
               
                   

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Source: 2019: NCC’s regulatory feats [3]

- gist culled from pulseng