Govt threatens telcos for defrauding Nigerians

For defrauding Nigerians, the federal government has warned that telecommunications companies would be punished by way of fines if they do not desist.

The warning came from the Minister of Communication, Barrister Bayo Shittu, who spoke in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

He stated that the telcos make illegal deductions on unsubscribed messages and cancel unused data after one month instead of rolling it over.

According to him, “Nigerians are not happy about receiving unsubscribed text messages asking them to subscribe for one thing or the other without requesting for it. Personally, I have been a victim of this more than once. The second problem is dropping of calls. You will have two phones side by side and you will call the other one and they will tell you the number does not exist and a lot of Nigerians are being frustrated by this. The third one is deficiency in broadband penetration. You will discover that Nigerian telecom companies do not have the financial capacity to get telecom cable and mast into every community and that is why some communities do not have telecommunication services.

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“The last is the payment for data for internet connectivity and you may not consume the data before it expires, instead of rolling it over when you subscribe again, they will say you have exhausted your data and ask you to subscribe afresh.”

The minister revealed, that an emergency meeting has been called between his ministry, Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) and all the telecommunication companies in the country to address these issues.

He also said that the telcos had been issued a final warning to stop the illegal actions, and sit up, adding that fines would be imposed on any firm that fails to obey government’s directive.

 

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