By Clement Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the 2022 World Consumer Rights Day, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has embarked on a road show to sensitize the consumers of telecom services on their rights.
The Commission enlightened phone users or consumers of telecom services in the country on what to do when dissatisfied in order to get their problems resolved. Dissatisfied consumers of telecom services were urged to contact the service providers whose services or product he/she is not satisfied with and obtain a complaint ticket number. And in the event that the issue is not resolved by the service provider, the consumer can call the NCC contact centre 622 Toll-free number to lodge his/her complaint.
Consumers of telecom services were enlightened on how to stop unsolicited text messages by texting stop to 2442 as well as how to activate “Do-not-disturb”. This does not allow a subscriber to receive unsolicited messages.
Speaking to Sundiata Post by one of the consumers who identified himself as David Obianaso, he said that this kind of awareness creation has made him to know that there is a way he can handle and stop the regular and annoying messages that keeps coming into his phone and that he is going to educate his friends who do not know that there’s a way to stop the unsolicited messages.
The various places where these awareness, sensitization and enlightenment campaign took place are Emab plaza and banex plaza Wuse, Gwarimpa market, Wuse market and computer village.
Some consumers who said the awareness campaign has offered them the opportunity of knowing their rights as customers, thanked the NCC for taking time out to educate them on how to solve their problems especially given the difficulty experienced to reach out to customer services of the service providers.
Sundiata Post further recalls that Consumer Rights Day is a global event to encourage people to be aware of their consumer rights and duties so that they can make informed decisions. It was Consumer International that started observing this day and still celebrates it every year.
Consumer International is a global federation of consumer organizations that was founded in 1960 as an independent and influential voice of the consumers.
This day was first celebrated in the year 1983 and 15 March was chosen because it was on this day that U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy mentioned four important consumer rights in his speech to Congress:
- Right to safety
- Right to be informed
- Right to choose
- Right to be heard.
The NCC protects consumer’s rights and provides information to consumers in various ways.