More Nigerians complained about their mobile network providers in the first quarter of 2021 than they did in the same period the previous year, says the Nigerian Communications Commission.

In a recent statement, the NCC released the number of complaints it had received and resolved within the first quarter of 2021.

The statement was signed by the director of public affairs, Ikechukwu Adinde.

The report released by the Consumer Affairs Bureau of the commission listed 3,019 consumer complaints for the first quarter of 2021 compared to 2,854 complaints received during the same period in 2020.

“Of the 3,019 consumer complaints, 2,995 consumer complaints, representing 99.2 per cent, were successfully resolved. While only 24, representing 0.8 per cent, which were escalated to service providers, are pending resolution from the respective service providers in line with the revised Consumer Complaint/Service Level Agreement (CC/SLA) of 2019,” said the NCC.

The report breaks down the complaints into two categories; the pathway through which the complaints were made and service providers.

Two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-nine complaints made in Q1 of 2021 came through the NCC contact centre, making up 91.4 per cent; 188 of the complaints, making up 6.2 per cent were received via the NCC consumer portal; 50 complaints came to the commission through its various social media platforms, and 22 were written complaints.

In terms of service providers’ customers, 1,261 of the total complaints were lodged by MTN customers, making up 51.8 per cent of total complaints; 973 complaints from Airtel subscribers represents 32.2 per cent; 549 complaints by Globacom subscribers, makes up 18.2 per cent. 9mobile recorded 179 complaints at 5.9 per cent, and the remaining 52 complaints came from customers of other licensees.

The report also ranked the nature of the complaints, putting issues about billings, quality of service/experience for voice, and quality of service/experience for data as the three most complained about services from telecom consumers in the period reviewed.