NCC to leverage on data to empower consumers to make right choice—Maida

Dr. Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), says the commission will be leveraging data to be able to empower consumers to make the right choice.

Maida who disclosed this at a media parley in Lagos over the weekend, said the commission would be using data to leverage its plans for a situation where consumers will only have one SIM card and one device.

He said due to the quality of service from telecom operators in the country, many Nigerians have adopted multiple SIMs and multiple devices in order to stay connected, by switching from one SIM/device to another.

Maida however stated that “Rather than multiple devices and SIM cards, we are looking at a situation, where consumers will only have one SIM card and one device,” he stated.

Dr. Maida, who recently clocked a hundred days in office as EVC of NCC also disclosed plans to grow the telecommunications industry within five years of his tenure and beyond, while listing collaboration, data centricism, compliance and digitization as the fulcrum of his administration.

He further revealed that he would partner with critical stakeholders in the Telecoms industry, that include the consumers, the industry payers themselves and the government.

“So I think after reflection, I will give a brief summary of how we will be approaching the next couple of years. And I think the first thing I have to mention is what I see as drivers. Number one is collaboration, so in the spirit of how we have been working as stakeholders whether it is government, whether yourself in the media, even if it is the Nigerian consumers in the telecoms service, collaboration is going to be a very strong driver for us,” Maida stated.

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He also spoke further on what would drive the telecoms sector under his watch. “The next major driver for us is being data centric. NCC will be more data centric going forward because the world is now a global village and practically all businesses now revolve around data, hence the commission will do everything within its regulatory framework to work with telecom operators in the provision of quality and affordable service for consumers.

“We are going to be driving the collection of a lot of data from our stakeholders, and also using that to project the work we are doing so that we can have a high level of transparency.” He stressed the need to grow the industry to maturity by ensuring that players in the sector comply with regulatory obligations.

Speaking further on compliance as a major driver, he said that the commission is empowered by the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA 2003), to hold licensees to their obligations, adding that the commission has put in place obligations for licensees to meet. “We will help them meet those obligations, by deploying technology to make life easy for them. With technology, licensees can renew their licences,” Maida added..

On his Strategies and focus areas he said that a slight approach would be needed to take the telecoms sector to another level. “We are going to take a slightly different approach, beginning from our stakeholders perspectives, we have three major stakeholders, the telecoms consumer, which whatever stakeholder you belong you are part of this stakeholder. We also have the industry itself, the licensees and the potential investors. And lastly we have the government.

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He also maintained that the commission would be working with the industry players. “We are going to be working with our licensees on data tariff, speed and coverage. We are going to be working with them to see how tariff can be simpler and more transparent. We will continue to enlighten our consumers to understand the habits that drive greater data usage. We are also going to be focusing on issues that consumers have escalated. We are going to be stepping in, as a regulator, to see what the common issues that consumers are complaining about and what operators are doing about them, so that we can really hold everybody in the value chain accountable,” he further disclosed.

On licensees, Maida, assured that the Commission plans to improve the resilience of the industry. “We are looking at reviewing the operating standards and introducing operating standards which are in line with international best practices. We are going to be leveraging technology to review our regulatory services and internal processes, so that our turnaround time for our regulatory services is greatly improved,” he added.

On issue of multiple taxation not excluding the Right of Way (RoW) charges, he said he is committed to driving advocacy by ensuring that telecoms infrastructure is perceived as Critical National Infrastructure, that Right of Way (RoW) charges are either waived by the state governments or they stick to the N145/linear charge, adding that the issue of multiple taxation would be resolved.

The CEO of the regulatory body maintained that the Commission would ensure that the service providers are accountable for their responsibilities to the customers, but in a collaborative fashion, adding that sanction is critical to ensure that every stakeholder plays according to the rules.