In commemoration of the 2016 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD 2016), NOIPolls, the leading, for country specific, polling services in West Africa, released a throwback of some previously released polls tracking Nigeria’s foray into the telecoms industry.
World Telecoms Day is observed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the member countries on March 17th every year.
According to the platform, with the current expansion of the Nigerian telecoms industry owing to the introduction of new service and product offerings, respondents to various surveys carried out by NOIPolls believed it has become pertinent for Nigerian Communications Communication (NCC), which is empowered to establish minimum Quality of Service (QoS) standards and other stakeholders to become more vigilant to ensure that consumers continue to have access to high quality telecommunications.
With Nigeria’s launch of the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication in 2001, when teledensity was merely 0.5 percent, recent statistics from NCC put the country’s teledensity at 106.25 percent (March 2016); revealing an astronomical growth in access to telecommunication in 15 years.
To substantiate these statistics, trended poll results by NOIPolls have also shown that most Nigerians make use of two lines, and this has grown from 45 percent in 2012 to 49 percent in 2015.
In spite of the sector’s growth and its attendant benefits which include employment, access to internet and data, improved means of communication and information sharing, supporting start-up companies, access to affordable means of communication, creating an innovative workplace, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of over 18 billion dollars and an addition of 4 percent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) amongst others; the sector is still bedevilled with a number of challenges.
Customers have consistently complained of issues such as high tariff, poor network service, undue credit deductions, dropped calls, excessive billing, charges for services not rendered etc.
In this regard, the sector which has been considered hugely successful, has greater potentials for the future if the challenges identified by subscribers could be effectively dealt with.
With the current expansion of the Nigerian telecoms industry owing to the introduction of new service and product offerings, it has become pertinent for NCC (which is empowered to establish minimum Quality of Service (QoS) standards) and other stakeholders to become more vigilant to ensure that consumers continue to have access to high quality telecommunications. We join the world today to celebrate the WTISD 2016
These results are from public opinion polls conducted between 2012 and 2015 involving a mix of face-to-face and telephone interviews of a random nationwide sample of Nigerians aged 18 years and above, representing the six geopolitical zones in the country, were interviewed.
With a sample of this size, we can say with 95% confidence that the results obtained are statistically precise – within a range of plus or minus 3%. Agency report
