THE Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, has said that commercial banks in the country are owing telecommunications companies over N17bn.
Danbatta said the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Pantami, had already been briefed on the development, with a view to ensuring a speedy settlement of the debt.
The NCC said these in a statement on Thursday, signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Ikechukwu Adinde.
He said when the NCC introduced the Do-Not-Disturb code in 2015, less than 500,000 people activated the code. However, he said there were now 22,722,366 lines on the DND.
The NCC boss noted that 98 per cent of the total service-related complaints received from telecoms consumers within a 15-month period had been resolved.
According to him, the 15 months period covered January 2019 to April 2020.
“The Commission has monthly engagements with operators as well as quarterly industry working group on Quality of Service and Short Codes, and is currently monitoring 2G Key Performance Indicators, while the KPIs for 4G are being prepared,” he said.
The commission had recently said that the amendment to its USSD Determination was induced by a dispute between Mobile Network Operators and Financial Institutions on the applicable charges for USSD services and the method of billing.
The Commission revised the Determination previously issued by removing the Price Floor and the Cap to allow Mobile Network Operators and the banks negotiate rates that would be mutually beneficial to all parties concerned.
The NCC, in the current review, also said that Mobile Network Operators must not charge the consumers directly for the use of USSD channels for financial services in the form of end-user-billing, but revert to corporate billing.
According to the Commission, transactions should be between the MNOs, the banks and financial institutions.
