NCC sets new KPI for QoS, says telecoms contributes 15trn to economy

The Nigerian Communications Communications (NCC), have said telecoms sector contributed about N15 trillion to the Nigerian economy since the liberalisation of the industry sixteen years ago.

This was made known by the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, in Lagos.

He said the industry according to the latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), contributed nine per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in quarter one of 2017.

Danbatta explained that the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP increased from eight per cent in Q4 of 2016 to nine per cent in the New Year.

He noted that since his assumption of office as the EVC about 18 months ago, the industry has been adding between N1.43 Trillion and N1.45 Trillion to the economy quarterly.

Danbatta maintained that the NCC wasn’t satisfied with the quality of service offered by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

He said however, there was a major improvement in the first quarter which he attributed to the sector’s contribution to the GDP.

However, the commission is considering a review of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set for the MNO on the need to improve quality of service on their networks.

He said continued drop in service quality has really created a huge gap between consumers and the MNOs, “reason for some drop in subscriptions.”

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On the dropped in teledensity and revenue, the NCC EVC said migration from 3G to 4G/LTE could be responsible as subscribers rather use WhatsApp to communicate and even make free calls.

He said, “Consumers are moving away from high tariff services to a more cheaper and free services.”

On the Quality of (network) Service (QoS) offered by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) had not been impressive but the Commission is hopeful for of improvements as indicated in the first quarter 2017 reports.

According to him, continuing drop in service quality has really created a huge gap between consumers and the MNOs.

He argued that poor quality of service was a reason for drops in mobile subscriptions.

“The commission will review the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set for the operators to meet, with a resolve that any of the MNOs that failed to meet up will be adequately sanctioned,” Danbatta said.

Speaking on the continuous drop in telephone subscriptions in the country, the NCC chief disclosed that the commission discovered some subscribers were migrating from Third Generation (3G) to 4G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.

“So they would rather use WhatsApp to communicate and even make free calls. Consumers are moving away from high tariff services to cheaper and free services,” he added.

Mr Sunday Dare, executive commissioner, Stakeholders Management of the commission, said that the commission had already read the riot act to service providers on poor services.

Dare said that this year’s first quarter KPI result was under review.

He said that there was no deadline on improving QoS on the part of the operators but that sanctions were on the cards.

“NCC is not in the habit of giving deadlines but when we get to giving deadlines, then know that we had sounded it long enough for the operators to improve,” Dare said.

Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman (EVC)(middle) speaking during Media parley with ICT journalists while other top officers at the Commission watch.