NCC says won't compensate subscribers

Lagos - The Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has ruled out compensation to mobile network subscribers for alleged poor services by firms in the sector.

The NCC’s position follows recent call by stakeholders in the telecoms sector that subscribers should benefit from the monetary sanctions imposed on three telecom operators for continuously providing such mediocre services.

The stakeholders had argued that since subscribers suffered the problem for which sanctions were imposed, they should also share part of the sanction money to be paid by telecoms operators.

The NCC had earlier this week imposed a N647, 5 million on MTN, Glo and Airtel  for breach of key performance indicators (KPIs) and poor quality of service for the month of January 2014. 
Etisalat was however given a clean bill for meeting the key indicators.


A breakdown of the sanction showed that Globacom was penalised, N277.5 million for three breaches, while MTN and Airtel got sanctioned N185 million each for two breaches.

Reacting to inquiries on stakeholders’ position that part of the sanction money should be given to subscribers, Reuben Muoka, NCC Public Relations Officer said that the enabling act setting up NCC did not provide for such action.

Mouka said the commission was a creation of the law and that it would not go outside its mandate and share proceeds of sanction with subscribers.

“The NCC act does not provide for direct compensation of subscribers by the commission. Part of our role as a regulator is to impose sanction when necessary and the money goes to government. If any subscriber wishes to seek compensation over poor service rendered by telecoms operators, they can go to court,” he said.

He noted that those who were insisting that the sanction money should be shared are misguided because they were not aware of the provisions of the law on such issue.

Mouka added that the commission would provided necessary support for any subscriber willing to sue any of the sanctioned telecoms firms. 

“As a commission, we are willing to assist any subscriber who decides to go to court to seek damages over the action of the telecoms firms. We would definitely assist such person in any way possible,” he said.