Charles Abuede
A total of 2,995 out of 3,019 complaints were resolved as telecom consumer complaints by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) during the first quarter of 2021 across the major network operators. This indicates a 99.2 per cent of service-related complaints received from complaint channels established by the Commission as compared to 2,854 complaints received in the Q1, 2020. A recent report on complaints management published by the Consumer Affairs Bureau of the NCC revealed.
According to the report, out of the 99.2 per cent successfully resolved, only 24, representing 0.8 per cent, were forwarded to service providers and awaiting resolution from the service provider in line with the revised Consumer Complaint/Service Level Agreement (CC/SLA) of 2019.
An analytical breakdown of the total complaints received during the first three months of 2021 from the four complaints channels established by the commission, showed that 2,759 (91.4 per cent) came through the NCC Contact Centre; 188 (6.2 per cent) were received via the NCC Consumer Portal; 50 (1.7 per cent) complaints came to the Commission through its various social media platforms, while 22 (0.7 per cent) were written complaints.
Further analysis of the data on complaints by service providers’ customers,1,261 (51.8 per cent) of the total complaints was lodged by MTN customers, 973 representing 32.2 per cent relate to Airtel subscribers, 549 (18.2 per cent) were accounted for by Globacom subscribers; 179 (5.9 per cent) by 9Mobile customers, while the remaining 52 complaints came from customers of other licensees.
During the period under review, a total of 971 complaints were submitted to the consumer affairs bureau in January, while February and March recorded 1,039 and 1,009 complaints respectively. Consequently, the commission reported that the three topmost complaints types from telecom consumers were the issues related to billings, quality of service/experience for voice as well as the quality of service/experience for data.
Umar Garba Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, while commenting on the report the telecoms sector regulator will continue to explore new initiatives to strengthen the consumer complaints management process that is in existence while it will ensure prompt and satisfactory complaints resolutions.
“NCC’s actions in this regard are in line with its mandate to protect and defend the rights and interests of the consumer, and to give concrete expression to its faith in the consumer as the lifeblood of the telecoms sector,” Danbatta said.
The NCC chief also urged telecom consumers to take advantage of the several channels for lodging complaints made available by the commission including the 622 toll-free consumer complaints line, the Commission’s consumer web portal on its website and other social media channels to promptly lodge their complaints in the event of service dissatisfaction.
