Telcos: Ensuring appropriate customer service, consumer treatment our biggest headache – CPC

…As NATCOMS laments payment of 25 taxes

Ladesope Ladelokun

Following complaints about what is perceived as unwholesome practices by telecommunications operators that range from questionable charges to poor services, failure of timely responsiveness to lack of transparency in billing, the Director General of the Consumer Protection Council, CPC, Barr Babatunde Irukera, says ensuring the appropriate customer service and consumer treatment in the telecoms industry has been one of the most challenging issues the CPC has been engaged in for almost two years.
While expressing understanding about the constraints companies face, Irukera , in an exclusive interview with The Daily Times, says the CPC believes the lack of transparency in billing, failure of timely resolution of consumer complaints are absolutely inexcusable and unconscionable, noting that these have nothing to do with infrastructure deficits as the billing is either opaque or arbitrary, especially for value-added services and forced subscriptions or multiple billing for the same service. Commenting on why CPC’s efforts while making marginal progress has not yet achieved the industry-wide sanitization that will really make an impact and promote customer satisfaction, the CPC helmsman says the CPC and Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) have yet to secure alignment on how to proceed and hold operators accountable in a fair manner, adding that both regulators launched a jointed investigation which was the outcome of over one year of back and forth between agencies. He, however, admitted that proceeding under the rubric of the joint investigation itself had not been as successful as anticipated, adding that the CPC was continuing efforts to gain this alignment, and confident that in the absence of the mutual understanding, CPC will do everything within its law to ensure the narrative changes. On the findings of the joint committee that comprises the NCC and CPC that was recently set up to investigate and address issues of unwholesome practices of telecoms operators, Irukera said, “Again like I said earlier, there have been many meetings and exchange of information, but the investigation remains inconclusive because both agencies have got to a point where there are fundamental differences in approach.
As such, there are no findings yet. At CPC, our investigative approach is broad and deep. “ We as a matter of necessity always confront subjects of complaints or targets of investigations with the complaints or perceived inappropriate conduct for their responses as a critical part of both the inquiry and resolution.
We believe only such an approach will result in meaningful outcomes and stand the scrutiny of the legal process.
In the absence of that, we strongly believe that the outcomes will either not address the underlying issues, or stand the test of time if legally challenged. This is the process CPC intends to pursue, either in collaboration, or alone.’’ Reacting to the claim by telecoms operators that state governments allegedly stifle the growth of the sector with obnoxious taxes and illegal charges and the likelihood that the burden will be passed on to consumers, Irukera says the primary telecommunication regulator is the NCC, stressing that the focus of the CPC is narrowly tailored to consumer protection.

According to the CPC boss, the council considers pricing from a free market standpoint and would support any NCC regulatory methodology and free market principles in regulating the negotiation of fair pricing between operators and subscribers in the marketplace.
However, he said the CPC would not condone any conduct that is exploitative, unscrupulous or obnoxious, adding that regardless of the factors contributing to pricing, the council would intervene where necessary. Meanwhile, Chairman of National Telecommunications Subscribers(NATCOMS), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, and the Chairman of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigerian (ALTON), Mr. Gbengo Adebayo, have called on governments at all levels to create a friendly business environment for telecoms operators do business and save more telecoms companies from dying.
They decried the situation where state governments impose obnoxious taxes and other illegal charges. According to Ogunbanjo, telecoms companies pay at least 25 different taxes, describing it as unacceptable.