THE Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Umar Garba Danbatta, on Wednesday paid a visit to the South East Zonal Office of the commission. He was full of praise for the staff for their hard work and dedication to duty.

Danbatta’s visit coincided with the working visits to the South East Zone by the other two Executive Commissioners of the Commission, Ubale Maska, executive commissioner, technical services, and Sunday Dare, executive commissioner, stakeholder management, both of whom were at the Zonal Office in Enugu to receive the EVC.

The EVC told the Commission’s staff at Enugu that the year 2017 is the year of the consumer and implored them to intensify the sensitization campaign on Commission’s initiatives and programmes designed to ensure that the telecom consumer derives concrete benefits from subscription to telecommunications services.

Danbatta noted that telecom consumers need to take advantage of the toll free line 622 to lodge complaints about services rendered by the operators; and to also activate the DO NOT DISTURB (DND) Code, 2442, to tame the instances of unsolicited massages and calls they receive from telemarketers. He bemoaned the fact that very small percentages of subscribers have activated the DND Code.

He told staff that the Board and Management of the Commission are mindful of the circumstances of telecom operation in Nigeria, such as challenges of electricity, vandalism and arbitrary charges among others, and recalled measures already taken to ameliorate the situation which include signing of MOUs with state governors to mitigate the excruciating conditions telcos face in the deployment of services across the country.

The EVC therefore called on the staff to ensure that telecom operators observe the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in order to achieve good quality of service. He invited the staff to recall that Empowering Consumers; and Improving Quality of Service are very central items in the 8-Point Agenda which he unveiled as the focus of Management under his leadership on assumption of office.

He reiterated that Management is committed to fulfilling the Agenda. “Very soon, we will unveil a plan to give a concrete expression to our declaration of the Year 2017 as the Year of the Consumer.”

Danbatta said as he received applause from staff of the South East Zonal Office and others staff from the Headquarters who accompanied him on the visit. Danbatta told the staff to brace up for more work because very soon the South East zone will witness deployment of fibre infrastructure as part of the implementation of the National Broadband Plan.

Already, he recalled that the Commission has achieved 21 percent broadband deployment and promised that Commission will ensure that it achieves 30 percent broadband coverage by 2018 as stipulated in the National Broadband Plan. Danbatta promised that Management of the Nigerian Communications Commission is committed to translating the organisation’s vision to reality.

In his response, the Zonal Controller South East Zonal Office, Lawrence Abang, thanked the EVC for the visit to Enugu and South East . He told the EVC that the staff in the Zonal Office are gratified by his visit and are always appreciative that they are staff of the Commission. He promised to mobilize his colleagues to work even better and requested that Management should continue to give support to the Zonal Office to enable it to discharge its responsibilities more efficiently and effectively.

Besides the Executive Commissioners, a few staff from the Head Office also attended the event. They are: Henry Nkemadu, Deputy Director Research and Development; Reuben Muoka, Head Public Relations; Usman Malah, Chief of Staff to the EVC; Messrs Ismaila Nalado, Yakubu Musa, and Suleiman Garba, EVC’s Executive Assistant, Special Assistant Media, and Special Assistant Technical respectively.