Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has leveraged its presence as a collaborating partner at the 2020 Argungu International Fishing and Culture Festival (AIFCF) to undertake a robust education of telecom consumers.

绿帽献妻 learnt that the nation鈥檚 foremost telecom regulatory commission at the event in Argungu, Kebbi State, rensitised the consumers on their rights, privileges, and obligations as critical stakeholders in the telecommunications industry.

Report says the historic event, which dates back to 1934, was first organised in honour of a visiting Sultan of Sokoto, late Malam Hassan Dan Mu鈥檃zu, to mark the end of hostility between jihadists and the Kabawa.

An annual event in Argungu town, this year鈥檚 five-day edition of the festival, which started March 10, 2020, is expected to end Saturday, March 14, 2020.

The festival attracts participants from both public and private sectors of the economy, as well as from within and outside the country.

The event was said to have offered the NCC an opportunity to interact with a large number of telecom consumers attending the festival to educate them on their rights and privileges as telecoms consumers, and also to enlighten them on various consumer-centric actions and policies of the Commission.

The NCC also took the opportunity to educate and sensitise participants on the procedures for reporting and resolving telecom services-related challenges.

Importantly, telecom consumers were informed that the process begins with filing a complaint to service providers.

Consumers were equally informed about their right to escalate complaints to NCC in cases where they are not satisfactorily attended to by their telecom service providers.

In this case, consumers were ask to dial the 622 toll-free number provided by NCC.

The NCC also enlightened the consumers on the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) 2442, where a consumer is required to simply send 鈥淪TOP鈥� as a text message to the short code, 2442, in order to completely stop unsolicited Short Messaging Services (SMS), or to send 鈥淗ELP鈥� to 2442鈥�, to select the kinds of SMS or Value-Added Services (VAS) they may wish to receive.

The Commission also sensitised consumers on the availability of 112 toll-free number which telecom consumers and other citizens can dial in emergency situation, in order to access help from emergency response agencies (ERAs) through the Emergency Communication Centres (ECCs).

Eighteen of the ECCs has so far been built by the NCC in different states. The Commission is also in the process of building ECCs in remaining states in the Federation.

Besides, the consumers were also enlightened on the dangers of using improperly-registered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.

They were enjoined to ensure proper registration of their SIM cards to avoid being disconnected on the mobile networks.

The NCC team also urged the consumers to leverage Mobile Number Portability (MNP) to seamlessly migrate from their original network to any of the other networks they prefer without losing their SIM numbers.

Participants in Argungu Festival were equally informed of the opportunities that abound in the telecoms sector.

These, according to NCC, include the kinds of licences they can obtain to start small scale businesses in the telecom sector.