Negative activities of government agencies, vandalism, hindrance to effective telecoms services —Nnamani

The Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Communications, Mr Ikechukwu Nnamani, has lamented that the continuous pressure on critical telecommunications infrastructure by government agencies and vandals always have negative impact on the provision of basic telecommunications services in the country. He said most subscribers to telecoms services are only interested in good quality of services but do not know the challenges the telecommunication companies are going through in the course of doing this.

He stated this in Lagos last week during a  chat with Nigerian Tribune.

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He said: “We’ve had cases where people don’t have access to basic communication services purely because somebody has gone to vandalise equipment. We can understand if an ignorant person who is looking for cheap money goes to vandalise such a critical infrastructure, but it’s more frustrating when the arms of government do the same thing just because they feel it’s the only way to squeeze you to part with money they’ve demanded from you.”

He added: “For instance, you want to make one million naira from an operator then you commit an act that will lead to a loss of ten million, which will lead to huge negative impact on the economy.”

Nnamani stressed that the only way to mitigate the problems that are impeding the growth of the telecommunications sector is through continuous sensitisation and education of government agencies across the various tiers of government on the cost implications of their actions on shutdown of telecommunications infrastructure in the country, as well as educating the people on the negative impact of their actions.

He stated that stakeholders in the industry, under the umbrella of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON),  Association of  Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and other organisations are collaborating as one unit to handle the problems.

On the other hand, he commended the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the role it has played in order to create awareness through various interventions with the Federal Executive Council and the Nigerian Governors Forum.