Communications Minister Pantami hates voicemail so much, he's warning Telcos to stop making it compulsory

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, is sick and tired of the voicemail feature compulsorily imposed on everyone with a phone line.

And we are certain he isn’t alone.

Pantami considers the automatic voicemail service an exploitation of subscribers and wants to end it all.

“The attention of the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy has been drawn to the latest trend of financial exploitation by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country, through the automatic activation of the voicemail service on their platforms. Based on recent reports reaching the office, the practice has gained momentum in recent times,” Pantami said through his spokesperson, Uwa Suleiman.

Minister of Communications, Dr. Ali Isa Pantami [Twitter/@DrIsaPantami] Pulse Nigeria

The minister adds that accessing the voicemail feature should be a matter of choice and not an imposition.

“The voicemail service should be accessed at the discretion of the subscriber and not by default.” Pantami says he finds “it worrisome and totally unacceptable that telecoms subscribers incur financial charges for a service they are compelled to use by default. Voicemail is not a popular service among mobile phone users in Nigeria, coupled with the language challenge among rural dwellers, who mostly do not understand the language deployed by these networks.

“It is apparent that the recent clampdown on the exploitative activities of some Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country has beamed the searchlight on the sector properly, and some unpatriotic elements in the system are devising subtle, ingenious methods of defrauding Nigerians,” he says.

The minister adds that he will “neither overlook any acts, regardless of how subtle, that undermine the anti corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari, nor condone any attempts to defraud Nigerians and indeed all subscribers.

“I have now issued a broad policy directive to the sector regulator Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to immediately ensure that issues regarding automatic voicemails are addressed on all existing phone lines and the subscribers given the option of accessing the service via an activation code.

The Minister of Communications, Dr Isa Pantami hates compulsory voicemail feature [Twitter/@DrIsaPantami] Pulse Nigeria

“It is our collective responsibility to ensure that the rights of consumers are protected, while providing a conducive business environment for mobile network operators in line with global best practice.”

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy, with some 172 million mobile phone subscribers--most of whom often complain of exploitation at the hands of telecoms firms.