With strict compliance with COVID-19 management protocols put in place by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Senior Executives of telecommunication companies on complaints management recently held the regular bi-annual meeting.
The meeting which was held virtually for the first time focused on complaint management processes and consumer relations, the Commission and the telecom service providers concluded that the policy on compensation should be revisited and complied with at all times.
This is to ensure full compliance with the new Complaint Categories and Service Level Agreement (CC/SLA) consented to by the Commission and the telecom service providers in the telecommunication ecosystem
It was also decided that the NCC and telecom service providers will have a continued round of talk on “Fair Usage Policy” on data rollover/unlimited data bundles, so as to offer a clearer understanding around procedures of the policy for the benefit of the consumers.
NCC hereby reiterates that its June 2018 direction to telecoms service providers to start data rollover implementation from June 26, 2018 remains in strict force. Thus a subscriber unused data must be rolled over to his/her subsequent data subscription.
furthermore, the NCC has urged telecoms service providers to continually inform and educate subscribers on the procedures for data rollover.
Telecoms service providers also consented to ensure that complaints management teams get support from senior-level customer relations officers in resolving consumer complaints that wasn’t resolved on its first report.
Also, the service providers promised to comply fully with the recently-reviewed Service Level Agreement (SLA).
With respect to services subscribed to through third parties (such as banks), which are not rendered, the
meeting resolved that telecom service providers should explore initiating service level agreement with banks to ensure uniformity and speed in the resolution of complaints relating to billing.
In the meeting, it was equally agreed that telecom service providers will conduct a thorough consumer education and enlightenment campaigns about their products and services so that their subscribers have maximum information in making informed decisions to and obtain value for money spent.
The NCC expressed its delight on the impressive participation from stakeholders and he quality of decisions reached at the bi-annual virtual meeting.
The Commission thus is set to continue working closely with the service providers and other stakeholders in the Nigerian telecom sector so as to improve on the quality of service which by extension affects the quality of consumer experience.
Since 2018, the bi-annual meeting, which has held regularly, focusing on ensuring improvement in Quality of
Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) in the telecom industry.
It has served as a veritable platform for the NCC and service providers to discuss and agree on measures that will enable prompt and effective consumer complaint resolution in telecom service provision in Nigeria.
