Monday, July 9, 2018

editorial
NCC, protect consumers from TELCOS’ tyranny
22 MONDAY, JULY 9, 2018
THE commencement of a directive by the
telecommunications industry regulator that
operators must roll over customers’ unused data is long
overdue. New rules by the Nigerian Communications
Commission last week require data service providers
to roll over subscribers’ unused but pre-paid data
onto the next data subscription. What remains is a
rigorous enforcement of this and other rules and a
greater commitment to consumer protection by the
agency.
Although long in coming, the rule seeks to address
one of the many oppressive practices mobile network
operators and other Telcos inflict on Nigerian
subscribers. From June 26, however, operators and
other providers must add a subscriber’s un-utilised
data to his or her next subscription cycle. Hitherto, the
country’s 103.15 million data users (as of May 2018,
according to the NCC website), were often frustrated
and short-changed by service providers: their unused
data balance was forfeited as soon as the subscription
validity period expired. Standard practice worldwide
is to roll over unutilised data, but Telcos have been
taking undue advantage of lax regulation and the
yearning of Nigerians for voice and data services to
rip them off. A N5m fine will henceforth be imposed
on each subscriber whose data is not rolled over and
N500,000 each day following the first default date.
This is a fitting penalty for recalcitrant operators.
But, welcome though it is, the country’s 103 million
strong mobile internet users as of May this year,
including smartphone users, are sceptical of the
willingness of the NCC to walk its talk by rigidly
enforcing compliance.
Consumer complaints have not abated over
the years; instead they have been mounting even
as telephone and internet usage has been rising
exponentially and operators roll out new value added
services.
From less than 500,000 combined active telephone
lines, the mobile phone segment alone has risen
exponentially from a few thousands in 2001 to hit
244.8 million lines by May this year, according to the
NCC, re-affirming Nigeria as seventh in the global
ranking of countries with the largest number of
mobile telephone users. The number of internet users
in the country by July 2016 was put by Internet Live
Stats at 46.1 per cent of the population. This rose to
98.39 million users (50.2 per cent of the population)
by December 2017, a report by Internet World Stats
revealed. Teledensity, the number of active telephone
subscribers per 100 inhabitants, at 116.09 by May, is
one of the highest in the world.
With the exponential rise in customer base and
patronage, Nigerians deserve better services than
they are presently receiving. Apart from the daylight
robbery of not rolling over unused data that the NCC
has now woken up to, consumers also complain of data
and airtime depletion, unauthorised subscription
and auto renewal to value added services they
never subscribed to and refusal by the networks
to terminate such unsolicited services even after
opting out. Some of the services were mentioned
at the NCC-brokered telecoms parliament. Some of
the numbers mentioned include 30801 and 4100.
Apart from poor service quality, the NCC should
address complaints of consumer frustration over its
2442 Do Not Disturb shortcode. Whereas its Legal
and Regulatory Services Department, in May 2016,
barred MNOs from sending out unauthorised text
messages to subscribers, beginning July 1, 2016, with
a N5 million fine for infraction and N500,000 per day
for as long as the infraction lasts, many report being
ignored when they use the DND. There were 13,880
complaints of abuses by MNOs in the first quarter of
2018, down from 17,247 complaints in Q4 2017.
To be fair, since liberalisation in 2001, the
telecoms sector has been a major investment draw
into the country, hitting $70bn in 2017, $2bn higher
than the $68bn of 2016. It contributed N1.54tn to
Gross Domestic Product in Q2 2017, almost 10 per
cent of the economy. It has been the second biggest
magnet for foreign direct investment after the oil
and gas sector and has impacted on other sectors as
well.
However, the regulator should be stern in the
interest of the economy: consumers should not be
deprived of disposable income that can be put to
other uses through the abuses of service providers.
We need to see more of an activist NCC that rightly
came down hard on MTN in 2015 with an initial
$5.2bn fine for issuing 5.2 million unregistered
Subscriber Identification Modules. Countries
jealously guard against security breaches, consumer
privacy/rights infringement, violation of trade
rules and financial scams, imposing heavy fines
on offending Telcos. The European Union imposed
€2.7bn on Google for search engine manipulation in
2017, also fining Facebook, YouTube and Google in a
separate action for allegedly facilitating hate speech.
Here in Africa, Communication Authority of Kenya hit
Safaricom, the country’s leading Telco, with a $2.6m
fine for poor service delivery and Rwanda hit MTN
with $8.5 million for violating rules on IT services.
Merely rolling rules out will not do: the NCC should
follow through with tough enforcement. It should start
with its DND, which many have complained are either
sparingly observed or not for long. The regulator
should work out an effective mechanism to refund
airtime and data to consumers logged on to and billed
for services they never subscribed to.
The NCC should continue to invest in cutting edge
technology, human capacity and public enlightenment.
Its role as a facilitator of Nigeria’s major sectoral
success story demands that it should not drop its
guard but enforce the rules and innovate to achieve
national aspirations in the telecoms sector.
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Toward a new
security architecture
for Nigeria
The persistent killings and destruction of
valuable property in Benue, Plateau and Kaduna
States, as well as in other parts of Nigeria, by
rampaging gunmen believed to be Fulani herdsmen
calls for an urgent review of the current security
architecture of this country. Horrified by the
intensity of the violence that is currently sweeping
across the country, Nigerians daily pray for a quick
and effective solution to the mass murders. Also,
they wonder when the killers, whose murderous
activities recently claimed the lives of more than
200 defenceless residents of some communities
in Plateau State, will ever be apprehended and
prosecuted.
The situation definitely calls to question the
delay on the part of President Muhammadu Buhari
to assent to the bill for the establishment of the
Vigilante Group of Nigeria, which has since been
passed by the National Assembly. When will the
President realise that the current policing system in
the country has failed and it can no longer protect
lives and property?
What Nigeria needs is a strong and intelligencedriven
community policing system, as enshrined
in the bill. For emphasis, it is important to stress
that policing in this context ought to be approached
from a multi-level angle. When the Vigilante Group
of Nigeria eventually begins to operate in the 774
Local Government Areas in the country and the 36
states of the federation, as well as in the Federal
Capital Territory, alongside the Nigeria Police
Force, internal security will be strengthened and
the ongoing attacks on innocent and law-abiding
Nigerians will be brought under control.
If the members of the VGN in every community
are well-trained, equipped with the necessary
tools and motivated, they will form the first line of
defence in our rural communities. Their presence
will certainly prevent the situation where a group
of marauders gain access into a community, kill the
residents with impunity and get away with it.
As the first to respond to acts of crime committed
within a community, VGN operatives will be able
to give adequate information and also gather
intelligence that will be passed to the relevant
security agencies for appropriate action. Since the
operatives will live within the communities, it will
be easier for them to identify strange faces and odd
movements.
Indeed, it will be in the best interest of the Federal
Government to utilise the services of a proactive
and intelligence-community policing system to fight
crime at the grassroots, instead of the reactionary
policing system that is presently in use now. A
synergy between the VGN and the Nigeria Police, as
well as other security agencies, will be quite effective
in reducing the crime rate to an appreciable level.
A situation where the government assigns the
military to carry out internal security duties under
a democratic government does not speak well of
Nigeria. In fact, it ridicules the country before the
international community.
Just as the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu
Sa’ad Abubakar III noted a few months ago, now
is the time to review the security architecture of
Nigeria. We call on President Buhari to assent to
the bill, since it has the potential to put an end to
the incessant killing of innocent Nigerians and to
ensure the final defeat of the dreaded Boko Haram
insurgents.
Just as the members of the Civilian Joint Task
Force has assisted in no small measure in the fight
against the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-
East, the operatives of the VGN will, no doubt,
prove to be indispensable for the protection of rural
communities from rampaging mass killers and land
grabbers.
•Otunba James Udoma sent this piece
from Lagos