Tag: NCC

The telecom sector once very predictable in performance and visibility, and even in functionality and relevance, has suddenly become a sector needing urgent attention, as it attracts responses and reactions of all shades. It is not a good place to be at all.

Mixed reactions will be too much of a beautiful phrase to describe an industry with too many worrying concerns. The subscribers are unhappy with the quality of service they are receiving in an industry that should be matured. Data in their phones disappear like mirage. The operators agree there are issues, pleading all kinds of challenges without the readiness to admit the burden of failure bearing down the industry.

It is a frustrating season for the subscriber. Ironically but which is a good development, the operators are making money, having returned to profitability after negotiating a 50 percent tariff increase from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which is the regulator of the telecom industry. Part of the discussion at the time was that an increase in tariff could help the operators build investable funds for network upgrade and expansion. That doesn’t seem to have happened. As they say, talk is cheap.

The situation is more complicated than it ordinarily looks. Just this Monday, at a place not too far from the city centre in Abuja, a friend had gone to a corner shop to print out a document which, unfortunately, had refused to send because of network challenges. He walked out with phone in hand searching for signals.

The walk was so unexpected that he had completely forgotten that his mini truck was blocking other vehicles parked at the shop. There was anger and frustration by others users of that environment who got trapped momentarily. You may call this a comic relief but it’s an unfortunate reality that phone  users have to deal with at the moment. More like a familiar Nigerian phenomenon where a bad situation simply refuses to abate.

From all indications, the regulator which appears to be doing a constant review of the situation, admits the decline in the industry, and said last week that it was introducing a bouquet of regulatory measures to deal with the situation or even put the operators in some kind of glass casing where failure will be magnified.

“We are putting the numbers in the public domain. Nigerians will clearly see which networks are delivering and which are failing,” Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida, told the media, adding that “this marks a new era of accountability in Nigeria’s telecom sector. When consumers are happy, operators thrive, and the economy gets a much needed boost.”

The ultimate, it seems, is to make the subscribers find joy in the use of their phones once more. The journey to this obvious expectation has been windy and tortuous. Every planned action, including a fibre optics ring and even fibre to home, has not been successful.

Unfortunately, fibre to home is not only laborious now but it seems to have been stripped of its psychedelic appeal by mobile technology because of ease of deployment. Even in the more technologically developed environments, mobile broadband seems to be the favoured kid on the block with the more advanced variant, 5G technology, offering high-end wireless services.

So, it really wasn’t a shock when Maida informed his audience that internet subscription has dropped by over a million, from 142.6 million to 141.25 million, although he said that efforts were being made to reverse this worrying trend.

Other figures from the Commission include: 171 million subscribers and 105 million broadband users. It may be safe to observe here that these were figures that came after the rebasing of the telecom industry.

However, these figures mean very little to a subscriber facing frustration on the network. He just wants the regulator to get down and do some work that can communicate a difference each time a user carries out an activity on the network. Is that not the reason they say, it’s not how far but how well? The ‘how well’ of it is the more obvious appeal.

The other side of the story from the NCC which deserves close observation but should be measured for performance, is the submission that apart from regulatory activities which happen in offices, the regulator has decided to put a number of information in the public space as active metrics that can be used in judging performances by operators.

Maida said that from the month of September, which is around the corner, the regulator would initiate Quality of Experience (QoE) Portal which will showcase a Public Map for network performance based on information from subscribers,  public release of operator performance score cards, and a quarterly quality of service report.

The intention is to put some industry activities in the public domain and furnish subscribers with accurate information that can help them make informed choices, while helping operators in engaging in more accountable and transparent practices that are best for an industry in search of stability. In the thinking of the regulator, all stakeholders have a responsibility to create a better industry with more informed engagement and decisions.

Do we have ‘name and shame’ laced into these fresh regulatory decisions? Perhaps. But whatever it is, the industry needs some shaking to get the best out of the operators who look flummoxed under the weight of industry challenges and consumer expectations.

There is a reprieve for them however, as Maida informed that an independent audit by PWC and KPMG,  has exonerated the operators from accusations of data pinching, adding that the confusion seems to arise from jumbled tariff structures which challenge the patience of subscribers. The regulator has called for a simplification of the process.

The regulator which just had its board members nominated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is brimming with optimism that,  “with these reforms underway, we hope to win back consumer trust, attract investment, and ultimately, restore the quality that customers deserve.

There is nothing wrong with optimism but there is everything wrong when subscribers feel shortchanged by operators who place more emphasis on return on investment (RoI) than respect for customers and service delivery.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) gets a Board at last. That is good news. There have been tons of materials written on the need for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to set up a Board for the regulatory agency which has its functions cast in the Act of the Commission to initiate policies that can shape the day to day administration of the agency.

With nearly a two year hiatus, a wait that raised more questions than understanding, the President in one fell swoop announced a Board each for the Commission and its other embedded body, the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF)

The statement released by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President, Information and Strategy, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has constituted the Boards of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Universal Service Fund (USPF), both agencies under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy. 

Idris Olorunnimbe, who previously served on the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) Board, was appointed chairman; others being: Hajia Maryam Bayi, a former Director, Human Capital & Administration at NCC, Col Abdulwahab Lawal (Rtd), Senator Lekan Mustafa, Chris Okorie, Oforitsenere Emiko, and Secretary of the Board, who is from the Commission.

Dr Aminu Maida who was appointed in October 2023, with Senate confirmation in November 15, 2023, retained his position as Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), while Engr Abraham Oshadami and Rimini Makama, who were appointed by the President on February 23,2024, with Senate confirmation on May  21, 2024, will continue to serve in their positions as Executive Director, Technical Services and Executive Director , Stakeholder Management, respectively.

Finally, things are taking shape at the NCC but it will be instructive to observe that for nearly two years, the regulatory agency, which is responsible for a sector as vital as telecommunications, operated without a Board, and was run by only three Executive  Commissioners with a substantive head. 

This was in clear breach of Section 5 (3) of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, which says that “Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the President shall ensure at all times that there is a duly constituted Board  of Commissioners and that there are a minimum of 6 serving Commissioners on the Board at any and at all times.”

For nearly two years there were only three Executive Commissioners. How could this ever be?  Within this period so much water went under the bridge, as the cliche would have it. 

However, it’s not for the sake of these three Executive Commissioners that things went south at the Commission; they were appointed into an agency that was  tearing at the seams because of a previously flawed Board and Management that promoted ego above competence in dealing with an industry that called for technical understanding and agile management. They ran the system into absolute discontent, leaving it to boil from inside. 

But there is no need crying over spilt milk, as they say; that is for those who can still afford milk in their homes. Data in the phone has even become more popular and much cheaper than milk! Which is the reason that telecommunications must work; it features more on the menu than real food. 

For the sector to work, the Board has a crucial role to play. Thankfully, the President has given the Commission a Board, hopefully not like the type the Creator gave to the stubborn set of people in the holy books, who pressured Him into giving them a king, although they were fully informed of the type of leader that was coming to them.

The Board is charged with the administration of the affairs of the Commission, and acts of the Board shall be deemed to be acts of the Commission. The Board works with the Management to provide a general direction for the Commission.

No doubt, there is a long list of expectations in the basket of the Board awaiting clearance from the Senate. And this is expected, as the sector has fallen out of its golden status to a level that is difficult to understand but very annoying. The quality of network experience is very poor, buildout is below expectations and operators adduce sundry reasons, some very ludicrous; there is discontent within the Commission, and for the very first time since 2000, the Commission is finding it difficult to meet wage bills. Even the very simple matter of staff promotion has become the stuff of social media, and even some quasi serious media, which do not understand how staff promotion works in an establishment. 

On another serious note, the Commission has nearly lost its regulatory independence consequent upon a troubling inheritance from the previous administration, and stakeholders are expecting this Board to rescue the soul of the agency from those who hold it hostage. 

Reacting to an article, titled: For telecoms, quality of service remains stubborn, published July 23, 2025, in this column, a reader wrote: “Why won’t there be quality of service issues when it is now desktop regulation that is happening? When staff visit to check the MNOs activities is considered frivolous trips? Self regulation in a country without regulatory infrastructure to detect service lapses from the office is funny.”

The foregoing is very serious communication but it obviously adds some perilous edge to some of the issues the new Board will have to sort immediately. 

While it is important to begin to set an agenda for the coming  Board, let me observe three names on the list that are particularly striking for different reasons. They are: Idris Olorunnimbe, Hajia Maryam Bayi and Chris Okorie. 

My take off point is Bayi. Her appointment has received loud acclaims from her former colleagues, not for selfish reasons but because they know her capacity as a human capital development expert. Once she had the opportunity to head the Human Capital and Administration Department, building staff capacity occupied the front seat. She could smell out training programmes anywhere in the world that could benefit staff of the Commission. She was highly trusted by both staff and management and that offered her salubrious opportunities to resolve frictions and suspicions.

Plus congratulations, her former  colleagues have been offering a bucketful of advice on what to do to reignite the passion that was at the Commission. The one from Dr Steven Andzenge, a former Director at the Commission, was particularly instructive. I have his permission to reproduce it here. 

“My Sincere congratulations to our amiable Maryam Bayi on her appointment to the Board of the Commission. She will come to the Board as a former management staff with deep insight on the workings of the Commission, how it was and where it should be going as a Regulatory Commission.

She will be an effective guide to the other Commissioners and with her wealth of management experience, deep knowledge of Human capital, she will ensure both internal and external operations of the Commission will be met. A special commendation for this well deserved appointment and our prayers are for her.

“May the Government also continue to identify and equally pick other Former management staff to be of service to the nation in various other Executive or Non Executive roles as NCC has produced deeply knowledgeable versatile management staff who can add value to various other sectors,” he wrote incisively.

In Bayi, President Tinubu has made the right pick as she brings a rich pedigree to the Board. 

But the same cannot be said of Chris Okorie, an innocent man,  whose inclusion smells of malevolent infusion. One can see the efforts of the President to ensure some gender presence on the Board, which easily explains the choice of Princess Emiko from the South South. 

Who is Chris Okorie?

Okorie, from the information available to me, is also from the South South, but obviously chosen because he could well be taken as coming from the South East denied representative on the Board.  

Yet the Act in Section 8(1), under Appointment and Tenure of Commissioners, states very clearly, that Commissioners shall be appointed by the President in accordance with Section 7 of this Act, from the 6 geo-political zones of Nigeria subject to the confirmation of the Senate. Those who made that pick have thrown us into a season of onomastics!

The question is, who hoodwinked the President into breaking the law which he swore to keep, except you are saying the Nigerian President is above the law, which has been a sustained tragedy of a nation that has not really risen beyond expectations and optimism. 

There is copious evidence that Okorie once tried to seek a ticket to the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly from Etim Ekpo – Ika Constituency in 2019. This may not just be a social media smear. Check the congratulatory messages. Again, this may just be an innocent man being drawn to the inexorable vortex of needless controversy.

But provenance, dear friend,  cannot be a secret. It carries with it legacy bloodline relationships that can never be hidden from the social media or even the sentry eyes of people genuinely concerned about fairness and equal representation. The President needs to take a second look at the list. The South East needs a voice on the Board of the NCC.

And finally for the new Chairman. There was once an Ahmed Joda, who could storm the Villa without an appointment and argue with President Olusegun Obasanjo, make demands or even disagree with him, all for the love of the telecoms industry. There were others after him, some of whose tenures pailed into interregnum.

Can Idris Olorunnimbe ever carry that level of boldness? Let me remind him of the word of the Alchemist, in the book with the eponymous title, The Alchemist. “Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World,” he told the young man,  Santiago, who was on a magical journey to seek his own destiny or personal treasures. 

Like Santiago, there are so many young people at the Commission whose future and destiny are conjoined with the capacity of the new Board to perform. The Chairman should not disappoint them or be inebriated by fumes from idle talks in offices. 

The Commission needs immediate and urgent attention. The  Chairman should take full advantage of the glorious opportunity given him to write a good story. Or will he squander his moment in the sun?

The choice is his. Welcome on Board.