NCC pledges continued protection

Speaking at the 75th Consumer Outreach Programme in Enugu on Thursday, the commission’s Director of Consumer Affairs, Mrs Maryam Bayi, said it would also continue to protect the consumer from infringement on their rights by service providers.

Bayi, who was represented by her deputy, Dr Joseph Atoyebi, said the commission had over the years made remarkable strides to protect the interest of consumers.

She said that the outreach programme was one of the ways the commission used to bridge the gap between the service providers and the consumer and urged the consumers to make the best use of the opportunity.

The director said that the commission was concerned with the way the network operators provided their services to the consumer.

"It is worrisome to note that the commission has received numerous complaints on how dissatisfied consumers are regarding how services are delivered by the network operators,’’ she said.

She listed the major complaints to include unsolicited text messages, tele-marketing, inaccessibility to customer care help lines and poor spread of customer care centres.

Also listed among the complaints were unlawful deduction of credit for value added services not subscribed to, poor data services and disruption without compensation.

Representatives of the service providers while responding to the complaints said they were mainly systemic and conformed generally with the country’s level of development and economy.

They also pleaded with the consumers to bear with them as they worked to improve the situation.

Some of the consumers, who attended the programme in their hundreds, thanked the NCC for making it possible for them to sit with the service providers to resolve their differences.