Consumers Day: Telecom industry faces attack on poor service, invasion of privacy
The consumers’ day, marked globally last weekend with focus on ‘Fix our phone right’ provided consumers in Lagos the opportunity to engage telecom operators on a number of issues they consider intolerable in the telecom service in Nigeria.
Some of the large crowd of consumers present at the forum in Lagos with modified title ‘Value for money in telecoms services’ principally complained about charges they are subjected to for services they don’t ask for.
They also complained about invasion of their privacy by text messages and requests to send something to short code that they didn’t ask for, bad quality of service which they are charged for. The telecom consumers also complained about bad structures for redress of complaints.
The forum organized by Lagos State Consumer Protection Committee and the Consumer Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria (CAFON) also enlightened most consumers about what they should not accommodate and what they should do to avoid being exploited.
The officials of telecom providers present at the forum went back with the deluge of the complaints which would perhaps lead to adjustment of their services to accommodate the complaints but the organizers of the event said that it should not be until the consumers complain as the telecom operators need to be proactive to ensure that those issues are no longer there.
Reports said Nigeria loses about N730bn to Poor Telecoms Services annually.
Sola Salako, President of CAFON said the forum has exposed the consumers’ unawareness about the services of operators but “you cannot blame them. This is a new service and nobody has paid too much attention to educating them to the level where they can make some decisions themselves”
She considered the less education of the populace as “deliberate as some service providers may not want the consumers to know too much so that they (the service providers) can engage in exploitative activities around the consumers”.
On our part, we have to engage them (telecom operators) to create platforms to educate consumers and “we are working with government and other stakeholders to ensure that consumers get the platforms to know what they are signing for and then in situations where they cannot help themselves, then government has the responsibility to intervene on behalf of consumers”, she said.
In her paper at the forum, the deputy governor of Lagos State, Orelope-Adefulire said it is the determination to protect the rights of people especially as they relate to consumer issues and to ensure that they get correct value for their money on purchases,that her government signed into law the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency Bill last week.
Also speaking, the adviser to the Lagos State governor on commerce and industry, Oluseye Oladejo educated consumers on the basic rights they have and which nobody can trample upon without being challenged. These include right to safety, right to be informed, right to choose, right to be heard, right to satisfaction of basic needs, right to redress, right to consumer education and right to healthy environment.
He advised the public to report any infringement of the rights to the Lagos State government.
Daniel Obi