Nigerians to get back their money from telcos – NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced discovery
of large volume of forceful subscriptions and illegal deductions from
customers' phone lines by telecommunication service providers.

The commission in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday, said
it would soon order the companies to refund the illegal deductions to
customers.

"The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has noted with great
displeasure the unacceptably high level of consumer complaints in
respect of forceful subscriptions to Value-Added Services (VAS), as
well as airtime deductions for these subscriptions,'' the statement
said.

The commission said it mandated several initiatives to tackle the
menace, including the institution of a comprehensive investigation and
resolution process, the Do-not-Disturb (DND) facility, and the
imposition of sanctions for breach.

"Disturbed by the persistent occurrence of the menace despite these
measures, the commission carried out a long and comprehensive
investigative audit into VAS subscriptions across all MNO and VAS
platforms.

"The investigative audit was led by the Compliance Monitoring and
Enforcement Department of the commission, with participation from its
other departments such as the Technical Standards and Network
Integrity (TSNI), Consumer Affairs Bureau (CAB), Legal ad Regulatory
Services (LRS), and Licensing & Authorisation (L&A)".

The commission said the audit team analysed subscribers' Call Detail
Records from MNOs and subscription logs from VAS providers over a
period of two years, leading to the conclusion that a huge percentage
of VAS services were not voluntarily subscribed for.

The audit team further found that some providers had implemented
disingenuous mechanisms by which large numbers of innocent consumers
were "forcefully" subscribed to VAS platforms, leading to regular
deductions of their airtime without their consent.

"As all stakeholders are aware, the commission has persistently
insisted that actions of this sort are unacceptable as they are in
direct breach of the Nigerian Communications Act and NCC's many
regulatory instruments on the matter. Such actions also undermine the
very foundations of the customer/service provider relationship, that
is, transparency and trust.

"Based on the outcome of the investigative audit, the commission will
shortly be directing the indicted organisations to make refunds to
affected consumers as appropriate.

"The commission is also considering, and will impose appropriate
sanctions as necessary. This outcome justifies the commission's
commitment to evidence-based interventions."

The statement added: "We wish to use this opportunity to inform the
general public that the commission may suspend or outrightly
decommission some VAS platforms and services in the overall interests
of consumers.

"We assure consumers that these measures will be implemented with
minimal inconvenience to them, and trust that we can count on the
understanding of consumers who may be affected by these measures.

"The commission assures all stakeholders that we will continue to use
all available resources to protect the rights of consumers of telecoms
services and to ensure that they get appropriate value for their
interactions with service and platform providers.''