NCC, CBN collaborate to tackle failed telecom transactions

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Tuesday said it is collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to tackle the recurring problem of failed telecommunications transactions in the country.

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NCC Executive Vice Chairperson/Chief Executive Officer, Aminu Maida, disclosed this while speaking at an interactive session with the media in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr Maida explained that the commission has teamed up with the CBN to tackle the frequent issue of failed recharge and airtime top-up transactions. He explained that a joint task force has drawn up a standardised operational framework currently undergoing review to strengthen dispute resolution and enhance customer experience.

“When you recharge, you get debited and don’t necessarily get the credit. The director of consumer affairs with our counterparts in the CBN set up a task force, and there’s now a framework that is undergoing review to standardise the operations around top-ups and recharge,” Mr Maida said.

According to him, investigations showed that the absence of a standardised framework was at the root of the problem.

“It was literally up to every player in the ecosystem. That was why we had to bring all parties together,” he said.

He noted that the commission remains committed to addressing quality of service concerns, assuring stakeholders that operators are already installing newly delivered equipment to improve service delivery.

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“We have revised our Quality of Service guidelines, so no longer do we just hold the mobile network operators accountable,” he said.

“We have engaged the operators directly on their rollout plans, and they are expected to deliver measurable improvements. Nigerians will soon begin to see the benefits of the ongoing deployments,” he added.

On complaints over data depletion, Mr Maida added that independent system audits carried out by Tier-1 audit firms such as PwC and KPMG, found no evidence of operators deliberately draining customers’ data, noting that confusing tariff structures were partly responsible for consumer dissatisfaction.

“What we did was issue a guideline for simplification and gave them a template whereby everybody must disclose their tariffs in a unified format.”

He emphasised that information disclosure and transparency would remain key regulatory strategies for driving competitiveness, improving service delivery, and protecting consumers.

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Speaking further, he said, Nigeria currently has 171 million active telecom subscribers, 141 million internet users representing 81.9 per cent penetration and 105 million broadband subscriptions.

“These figures reflect our steady progress and the growing integration of digital services in every aspect of our daily lives,” he said.

In her remarks, the Director of Consumer Affairs Bureau at the NCC, Freda Bruce-Bennett, urged Nigerians to adopt smarter habits in managing their data usage.

“Simple steps like monitoring app permissions, turning off auto-play on videos, and disabling background data for non-essential apps can make a big difference,” she said.