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The Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has assured that the commission will continue to provide a level-playing ground for operators to thrive, promote investment and delivery of innovative services to individual consumers, SMEs and big business owners by ensuring enhanced consumer quality of experience in the country.
He added that the NCC would continue to drive the remarkable digital transformation Nigerians are witnessing in the economy today on how the consumers are treated by the service providers.
Speaking in this year’s 44th International Trade Fair, Kaduna, he said, “The Commission is working assiduously with various stakeholders, the consumers, to see how more businesses can embrace digital platforms for delivering their services to the consumer. As a regulator, we also ensure we constantly inform you, the consumers, on how to be protected to prevent cases of online fraud or eschew consumer falling victims of cybercrime antics while in their legitimate use of the Internet.”
He explained that the digitalisation of the SME sector of the Nigerian economy is strongly connected to telecommunications, giving the power the telecom sector has to positively disrupt traditional business models, stressing that it explains why the growing demand for connectivity is pressuring telecom companies to upgrade their telecommunications infrastructure.
As a result, he stated that the network transformation has become far more imperative for innovative businesses, allowing them to address changing customer expectations, pointing out that with high-speed internet, mobile apps, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), social media networking sites and other means of digital communication, staff of a company can exchange information in real time and reach out to prospective clients.
According to him, these technologies support branding efforts and customer service strategy, adding that the SMEs can leverage ICT platforms to run their operations, thereby reducing operational costs, saving office space, increasing productivity across and ultimately increasing bottom-lines.
He restated that the NCC’s commitment to protecting and empowering consumers – whether individuals and corporate consumers from unfair practices willingly or unwillingly orchestrated by the service providers, stressing that it is based on their regulatory mandate of ensuring that consumers of telecommunications services deserve to get value for their money, and to be treated right as very important stakeholders in the scheme of things.
He explained that the number of active mobile subscriptions reached about 222,571 million at December 2022 and Teledensity of 116.60 per cent as at December 2022, stressing that the Internet subscribers have exceeded 154.8 million with broadband penetration standing at 47.36 per cent as at December, 2022.
In this new environment, he added that the competitiveness of Nigeria’s SMEs depends on their ability to leverage new technologies by acquiring the necessary digital skills to do business on an international scale.
He stressed that the steady growth of telecoms sector over the years with its pervasive positive impact on all other sectors of the economy in terms of increased automation of processes and digital transformation in service delivery, has been remarkable, stating that it would not have been possible without the telecoms consumers who are using the services daily.