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Five Years Jail Term For Poor Telecom Service In Nigeria

 Telecommunication providers in Nigeria have been asked to improve their service delivery or risk fines, withdrawal of their licenses and a possible jail term of … Continue reading Five Years Jail Term For Poor Telecom Service In Nigeria


 Telecommunication providers in Nigeria have been asked to improve their service delivery or risk fines, withdrawal of their licenses and a possible jail term of five years.

At a joint press briefing with the consumer protection council in Lagos, the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, warned that from December 31, any network operator that failed to meet previously agreed target on quality of service would be immediately prevented from further expansion of subscriber base until further notice.

“They will not be allowed to sell any more SIM cards until they comply,” Mrs Johnson said at the Monday press conference.

The telecom sector is the fasted growing sector in Nigeria with over 100 million subscribers but it is characterised with poor quality service.

Some of the issues that users have raised are incessant drop calls indiscriminate charges and poor mobile internet services.

The Director General, Consumer Protection Council, Dupe Atoki, pointed out that the victims were consumers who pay for services but, at the end of the day, do not get value for money.

“Business is profitable, gifts are rolling out and promotions for expansions are going on. Therefore, we must insist that when value is not given, that the next level is compensation,” he said, emphasising the councils’ readiness to seek compensations.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Mr Eugene Juwah, said that the service providers have been given one year and a half to get their infrastructure ready for good quality of service.

“In view of all these, the NCC decided that on the expiration of the memorandum of Understanding we had with the providers, which is December 31, the full force of our original quality of service regulation will come into being,” he said.