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Smartphone usage in Nigeria still low – NCC

By BusinessNews Staff on November 19, 2014

The penetration of smartphones in Nigeria has been described as disappointing given the size of the country’s population and the proliferation of digital activities.

The Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said this at the 76th edition of the repackaged Telecoms Consumer Parliament, held in Lagos.

Juwah, who put the total number of smartphones in the country at 12 million, said henceforth, promotions that would enhance the use of smartphpones would be encouraged, adding that the issue of broadband remained a priority to the NCC.

Since the repackaging of the TCP, he said the commission came up with a communiqué arising from the discussions at the last meeting which had reinvigorated its monitoring exercise to facilitate good service delivery.

The issues discussed, he said, included: unsolicited text message; dropped balance/credit disappearance; dropped calls; quality of service and inaccessibility of services; advertisement of unapproved promotions; and inaccessibility to customer care help lines.

“It is our belief that the resolution of the above issues will lead to remarkable improvement in service delivery and the quality of experience of all stakeholders,” he said.

The theme of this edition was “Data Service Delivery: The Way Forward”, and according to Juwah, the NCC had provided enabling environment for effective data service delivery with its policy on broadband development in the country.

He said, “Our open access model has the ability of ensuring high quality internet experience for all stakeholders. The deployment of fibre optic cables by reputable Service Providers – Main One, MTN, Glo, WASL, and so on, has placed Nigeria among the comity of nations providing efficient Internet service to its citizens.

“The commission has licensed InfraCos that will provide this service to Nigerians in ways that will ensure good quality service. Our broadband policy is robust enough to bring about good data delivery.”

He said with about 180 million people as of 2014, and having more than 130 million subscriber base, Nigeria could not afford to be contented.

According to him, ICT remaining a priority of the Federal Government and an important part of the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan administration and its desire for strong, inclusive, non-inflationary growth using the ICT as the major driver for transformation.

Also speaking at the forum, the Director, Consumer Affairs, NCC, Maryam Bayi, said one of the mandates of the Consumer Affairs Bureau of the NCC was to ensure the protection of the rights, privileges and interests of telecommunications consumers as well as develop effective policies and strategies that promote efficient telecoms service delivery.

She urged network operators to provide data services to consumers on demand, saying the importance of data service to global technological revolution and contribution to national economic and social development could not be overemphasised.

Bayi said, “Data Services are able to eliminate redundancy and streamline costs. This is because critical data is housed in one location, enabling data to be accessed and/or updated by multiple users while ensuring a single point of reference for updates.

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