Nasiru Yusuf

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has leveraged its presence as a collaborating partner at this year’s Argungu International Fishing and Culture Festival (AIFCF) to undertake a robust education of telecoms consumers attending the event about their rights, privileges as well as their obligations as critical stakeholders in the telecommunications industry.

The historic event, which dates back to 1934 was first organised in honour of a visiting Sultan of Sokoto, the Late Malam Hassan Dan Mu’azu, to mark the end of hostility between jihadists and the Kabawa.

Held annually in Argungu town, Kebbi State, this year’s edition of the five-day festival started on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 and it is expected to end on Saturday, March 14, 2020. Each year, the festival attracts participants from private and public sectors both within and outside the country.

The festival, thus, offers the NCC the opportunity to interact with a large number of telecom consumers attending the festival to educate them on their rights and privileges as telecoms consumers, and also to enlighten them on various consumer-centric actions and policies of the NCC.

As a programming partner to AIFCF 2020, the NCC participated at the Symposium and Grand Finale Inter-States Quiz and Essay Writing Competition, which marked the opening activities of AIFCF 2020.

This aspect of the festival, which was well attended by traditional rulers, other community leaders and other participants from the public and private sectors, members of the academa and as well as tourists, held
at the Conference Hall of the Presidential Lodge in Birnin- Kebbi.

The NCC seized the opportunity of the symposium to educate and sensitise participants on the procedures for reporting and resolving telecom services-related challenges. Importantly, telecom consumers were informed that the process begins with filing a complaint to service providers.

Consumers were also informed on their right to escalate their complaints to NCC in cases where they are not satisfactorily attended to by their service providers. In this case, consumers were ask to dial the 622 toll-free number provided by NCC.

The NCC also enlightened the consumers on the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) 2442, where a consumer is required to simply send “STOP” as a text message to the short code, 2442, in order to completely stop unsolicited Short Messaging Services (SMS), or to send “HELP” to 2442”, to select the kinds of SMS or Value-Added Services (VAS) they may wish to receive.

The Commission also sensitised participants on the availability of 112 toll-free number which telecom consumers and other citizens can dial in emergency situation, in order to access help from emergency response agencies (ERAs) through the Emergency Communication Centres (ECCs). Eighteen of the ECCs has so far been built by the NCC in different states. The Commission is also in the process of building ECCs in remaining states in the Federation.

The Consumers were also enlightened on the dangers of using improperly-registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards. They were enjoined to ensure proper registration of their SIM cards to avoid being disconnected on the mobile networks.

The NCC team also urged the consumers to leverage Mobile Number Portability (MNP) to seamlessly migrate from their original network to any of the other networks they prefer without losing their SIM numbers.

Participants at the Festival were equally informed of the opportunities that abound in the telecoms sector. For instance, the kinds of licenses they can obtain to start small scale businesses in the telecoms sector.