Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has hosted another edition of Campus Conversation (CC), in Bayero University, Kano (BUK).
At the event officials of the Commission engaged in intensive enlightenment of students of the varsity on their rights and privileges as telecoms consumers.
Campus Conversation is a sub-programme of the Telecom Conversations (TCs), a modified consumer information and education outreach programme in the purview of NCC’s Consumer Affairs Bureau (CAB). It consists of six sub-programmes, all conceived to target different categories of telecom consumers in order to empower them with the right information they require to make informed decisions.
Addressing a large gathering of students during the CC recently, the Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, NCC, Efosa Idehen, said the Conversation at BUK is the fourth edition in a series, organized to enlighten the student segment of telecom consumers about their rights, privileges and obligations to enhance quality of experience in respect of telecom services.
The Conversation had earlier taken place at the University of Abuja, University of Benin, and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Represented by the Head, Consumer Policy Development and Monitoring, Hafsat Lawal, Idehen said the objective of the CC is to ensure that telecom consumers on university campuses are adequately informed and educated on their rights and privileges.
Additionally, Idehen said, through the Conversation, students as telecoms consumers are able to acquire knowledge to make informed decisions and be able to protect themselves from unwholesome practices by service providers.
The Director Consumer Affairs outlined numerous channels the NCC had emplaced for aggrieved consumers to seek redress. These channels include the NCC Consumer Portal through which consumers can lodge complaints and also learn about consumer-centric activities of the Commission.
Other initiatives include the NCC 622 toll-free number, a second-level complaint mechanism for telecoms consumers to escalate complaints earlier lodged with their service providers which have not been addressed satisfactorily. The Director also mentioned NCC’s corporate social media handles on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as well as through correspondence via the NCC official email address (ncc@ncc.gov.ng). Idehen told the students to take advantage of all the NCC channels of communication to get redress in terms of resolution of their telecom service-related complaints.
Also speaking at the event, NCC’s Director, New Media and Information Security, Dr. Alhassan Haru, emphasised the importance of cyber awareness and vigilance. He said as NCC works with all stakeholders to enhance accessibility to the Internet for more people, cyber criminals are also on the prowl to defraud unsuspecting users of the Internet. Thus, Haru said, “We constantly encourage the youths, especially students in universities, who are the largest individual users of the Internet to use Internet for legitimate activities and more importantly to be conscious of cyber criminals. So, at NCC, we also ensure that we educate you in order to ensure a safe cyberspace space experience for all Nigerians.”
Earlier in her welcome address, the Head, Consumer Information and Education at NCC, Mistura Aruna, said the Commission had put in place a number of consumer-centric initiatives that CAB has been mandated to take to all shades of stakeholders. She added that this mandate is in line with the NCC’s Strategic Management Plan (SMP) and other policy documents of the Federal Government, all of which have been streamlined in the Commission’s Strategic Vision Plan (SVP) 2021-2025 with emphasis and focus on strengthening consumer protection and empowerment.
The students, who participated at the event, enthusiastically engaged in the conversation process, asking questions to seek more clarification on telecom service-related services.
The Commission also distributed Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials to the students so they can easily reference for effective and rewarding engagement with their service providers and the Commission.
Besides Campus Conversation, other types of the Telecom Conversations are: Telecom Public Sphere, Market Conversation, Professionals’ Dialogue, Village Square Dialogue, and the NYSC Sensitization.