HAI urges US: Nigeria needs collaboration, not confrontation over CPC classification - ITREALMS

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A civil society group, the Hope Alive Initiative (HAI), has called on the United States Government to immediately adopt a stance of collaboration instead of confrontation, following the US classification of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC), reports ITREALMS.

In a statement, HAI Director of Media and Communications, Ernest Omoarelojie, warned that the accompanying threat of military intervention significantly undermines Nigeria’s intricate diplomatic and security efforts to manage its complex security challenges.

CPC: Nigeria’s Trial or Triumph in U.S. Religious Freedom Politics? Asks Remmy Nweke - WeekendDigits@ITREALMS

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As Washington weighs Nigeria’s Country of Particular Concern (CPC) fate, WeekendDigits@ITREALMS with REMMY NWEKE reports that Abuja, the seat of the federal government, appears to be doubling down on faith diplomacy, brandishing the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council’s (NIREC) interfaith bridges and moral voices as proof that unity, not persecution, defines its religious freedom posture.

When the United States designates a nation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), it is not mere diplomatic labeling, it is a signal to the global community that a government has allegedly tolerated or engaged in “particularly severe violations” of religious freedom.

Under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998, this label ranks among the most serious rebukes Washington can issue against a sovereign state.

NCC, CPC investigate effects of call masking - ITREALMS Online

ITREALMS: 

The Nigerian Communications Commission and the Consumer Protection Council have resolved to investigate the effects of call masking in Nigeria on the directive of the National Assembly for the consumers, reports ITREALMS.

This saw to the review of the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the two government organizations and discuss how to work together to improve complaints resolution of telecommunications consumers.

Speaking at the meeting, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, said masking of calls with another number, especially international calls is a matter that has been trending and the NCC has been directed to address it as it has security implications.

Professor Danbatta said “The office of the National Security Adviser had directed the NCC to put in place, measures that will contain this menace even before the directive from the National Assembly to the NCC and the CPC.

“We have resolved to set up a joint committee to investigate call masking and filing and conclude within a month, and I am very happy with the outcome of the meeting.

“What has happened today is a testimony to an important item on NCC’s 8-point agenda which is strategic collaborations and partnerships with other agencies of government”

Babatunde Irukera, Director General, Consumer Protection Council said the meeting provided an opportunity to discuss consumer protection with respect to the telecommunications industry.

Irukera said: “it was a very productive meeting and few key things we agreed on is that the CPC needs a good number of guidelines, directions, regulations and initiatives of the Consumer Affairs Bureau of the NCC, with respect to addressing consumer issues.

“We are looking to concluding an existing negotiation on an MOU that will define how our relationship goes going forward, and we will open a mutual investigation into quality of consumer experiences in the telecommunications industry, to address a lot of consumer issues.”

The Executive Commissioner Stakeholder Management, Sunday Dare, stated that NCC’s journey with the CPC started many years back with previous MOU’s. 

“We been trying to review the MOU for some months and we’ve come to the final part of it, and what has happened today is to make sure we create the kind of synergy that we need to go forward to protect the consumers”, he said.

Sunday Dare reiterated that the NCC under the leadership of Professor UG Danbatta prioritizes protecting, informing and educating the 154 million telecoms subscribers in Nigeria through various ways, including the interagency collaboration with other organizations like CPC that have a mandate to protect consumers across the country.

‘CPC dead on social media’

ITRealms:

 

Supposed lead Federal Government agency on consumer protection in Nigeria, the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) could be said to be dead literally on social media, reports ITRealms.

Investigations by ITRealms, revealed that both CPC social media accounts, namely the Twitter handle and Facebook may have been ‘dead’ for over three years now.

Further investigations by our reporter showed that the Twitter handle @CPCNig no longer function and attempt displays “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist” by Twittes, just as its not searchable online.

Suspicion is high that the Twitter of CPC Nigeria may have been created by a techie consultant that has not been paid since in the inception of President Muhammadu Buhari as that seem to be the mantra of some failing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) since Buhari took over.

This is coming as its Facebook page was last updated over three years ago and precisely on May 15, 2012.

The inability of its Facebook page and Twitter to be alive, sources close to CPC confirmed, was due to lack of commitment from the agency over dealings with its ICT consultants.

For instance, the last CPC-ALERT on the Facebook was on a discovery of some un-named commonly-used packaged consumer products which it claimed are under filled or under-dispensed in their packages, thereby short-changing the consumers.

With over 80 million Nigerians online and over 50 per cent daily engaging on social media such as Facebook and Twitter to name a few, industry watchers described lopsided attitude of CPC on social media as awful.

+ITRealms DSA +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @CPCnig

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Emerging monopoly in Nigeria’s telecom industry

Opinion@ITRealms:

While nobody is against fair competition in the market place, there is a need to be concerned when an entity by virtue of its ambitious expansion plans ostensibly develops into a monopoly. That appears to be the implication of the recent development in the telecommunications sector, which has been celebrated for its competitiveness since the deregulation policy of the early 2000s.

MTN’s recent acquisition of Visafone Nigeria gives it access to valuable 800 MHz spectrum band which will enable it provide 4G LTE services. The 800MHz spectrum band is currently characterised by the presence of numerous sub-scale players who have been unable to utilise the spectrum efficiently. This acquisition places MTN in the enviable position of being the only GSM operator with access to this spectrum and thereby growing into a behemoth.

From a dominant player to a full blown monopoly, the Nigerian telecommunications consumer will be the ultimate loser. If a single operator owns all the variables in the market in which it plays, the consumer is left with little choices with the absence of real competition engendering high tariffs and possible poor quality of service.

The Nigerian telecommunications scene, specifically the GSM/CDMA telephony sub-sector, is dominated by four GSM service providers namely, MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat, alongside CDMA operators which have mostly been forced out of business by alleged non-competitive regulations which favour the GSM service providers.  

 According to industry analysts, issues such as interconnect fees and limited coverage areas pushed the CDMA operators to the back seat despite offering cheaper call rates. Interconnect fees favour the networks with larger huge subscriber base. In this regard, MTN Nigeria and Airtel (then known as Econet) are better placed having enjoyed first mover advantage as pioneer GSM service providers in Nigeria.

The 800 MHz spectrum band is characterised by the presence of sub-optimal licensees who have largely been inactive over the last eight years. For the few who have remained active, their performance has been sub-optimal and most lack the financial capacity to deploy services and thus compete effectively with a behemoth like MTN. Re-farming the 800MHz spectrum to make it available for operators who have demonstrated the ability to deploy telecommunication services appeared to be a challenge for the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator, as the current licence holders in the spectrum band have been unable to meet their roll-out obligations.

Over the years, MTN has spread its tentacles across the Nigerian market, moving from offering just telephony services to being a one-stop telecommunications service entity. The quest to increase its market share has thrown up an unhealthy trend which, if unchecked by the industry regulator, may lead to a complete monopoly and a throwback to the pre-GSM era when the government corporation, NITEL dispensed service at its whim and caprices. This situation, industry watchers say, will not offer the Nigerian subscriber the viable options that an open market economy throws up.

In 2006, MTN Nigeria acquired VGC Telecoms, a CDMA entity with a growing subscriber base in the Lekki/Victoria Island/Ajah axis of Lagos State. MTN Nigeria purchased VGC Communications Limited (VGCCL) for $70 million (N9.3 billion). VGC has since been subsumed into MTN Nigeria, giving the company the advantage of providing both CDMA and GSM services, unlike other GSM operators.

Visafone only obtained approval for the additional spectrum this year, and two months later it sold the asset. MTN’s access to sub 1GHz spectrum to the exclusion of other leading operators provides it with an unfair competitive advantage in the data market where it can easily deploy its size and profitability to further entrench its dominance in the market and stifle other players’ ability to compete. Given that it has already been declared dominant in the transmission market, MTN’s ability to control both spectrum and access at prices it dictate to industry and consumers makes this an unhealthy development, for which the consumer will be the ultimate loser.

This advantage poses a real threat to the viability of Nigeria’s telecommunication industry as it potentially leaves it with a single dominant player in both the retail voice and data markets. In the long term, the Nigerian subscriber will pay for this in the form of higher tariffs, poor quality of service levels, little or no incentive for innovation and a bully service provider due to the lack of competition in the market.

There is an urgent need for close regulatory scrutiny by the NCC in line with what obtains for any dominant operator in any market. The NCC must carry out an urgent review of the acquisition to ensure that such purchase does not give MTN an unfair advantage in the industry, which may be detrimental to the growth of a viable and healthy telecommunications industry in Nigeria.

Moses Kwambe is a consumer rights advocate based in Lagos

 

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