The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) on Monday said is set to sanction telecommunications companies who are performing below the industrial average with consistently poor service delivery.
Its Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Umar Danbatta, disclosed this during an investigative session by the Ahmed Abu- headed House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc Committee investigating activities of telecoms equipment, service companies and vendors in the country.
According to him, the key performance indicators (PKIs) of the NCC when applied to the services of the telcos showed that they were performing below par. This got to the highest level especially in the months of October, November, December 2016, he said.
“We invited the operators and laid bare what was happening to the quality of service which has degraded to unacceptable level,” he said, adding that NCC will be taking compliance action to compel the service providers to provide acceptable standard of service delivery.
“The NCC is going to impose sanction, and there will be ranking on the quality of service so Nigerians will know which to patronise,” he added.
He however noted that the service providers have complained of lack of infrastructure, denial of right of way and the dearth of foreign exchange to procure telecoms equipment.
While speaking on job losses in the sector, Prof Danbatta said though the Commission was concerned, its mandate does not empower it to dabble into labour issues. “ It’s outside the purview of the Commission. It’s regulated by a different Ministry, we liaise with the Ministry of Labour and Employment,” he said.
The chairman of the committee said the committee has already written to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ascertain the issue of repatriated funds by telcos and others.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige is also to appear before the committee to explain aspects that has to do with job losses in the sector, he said.
The committee is also mandated to investigate the audited accounts of all registered telecoms and IT companies; evidence of compliance with statutory obligations, frequencies monitoring report for GSM and microwave as well as dropped calls.
