The Nigerian Communications Commission is currently holding the 92nd Edition of it’s Telecom Consumer Parliament in Lagos, Nigeria.
The theme for this year’s edition is: “Consumer Protection for Persons Living with Disabilities and the Elderly”.
At the event, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, while delivering his remarks said, the aim of the TCP’s 92nd Edition is to throw a spotlight on consumers living with disabilities in the Nigerian telecom sector & deliberate on ways through which technology can be leveraged to improve accessibility to affordable products & services.
Danbatta stated that according to the International Telecommunications Union, Telecommunications services must be inclusive of all persons wherever they are deployed.
He said, “Technology has a mission to carve out a place for everyone, without exception and Disability-related advancements in science and technology have made it feasible for impaired individuals to live as independently as possible.
“The Nigerian Communications Act (NCA 2003) empowers the NCC to ensure that the needs of disabled and elderly persons are taken into consideration in the provision of communications services.”
He, therefore, highlighted ways in which the commission had made moves to incorporate the elderly and disabled in the broad spectrum of its Telecommunication services
He stated, “The NCC has developed critical initiatives to protect the interests of persons with disabilities and the elderly. These include:
- Fact finding meetings with Persons Living with Disabilities & the Elderly to identify areas of difficulty & establish expectations from Service Providers.
- Mandating provision of ramps for the physically challenged in all the Customer Care Centers of the network providers.
- Sponsored the development of indigenous prototype products to improve the accessibility of Persons living with Disabilities including a Mobile Communication Enabled Walking Stick (MCEWS) developed by students of the Federal University of Technology, Minna and unveiled in 2018.
- Transcribed the NCC’s Telecom Consumer Handbook into Braille. The handbook was unveiled on March 15, 2023 during the World Consumer Rights Day which was commemorated by the Commission in Abuja.
- Implemented the five per cent inclusiveness of persons with disabilities in NCC’s staffing efforts in accordance with the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018.
- NCC’s USPF has implemented many projects within the framework of its E-Accessibility Programme in the last 10 years which provide ICT tools & Assistive Technologies to the blind, deaf, dumb, crippled, cognitively impaired & other categories of people living with disabilities.
- The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) E-Accessibility projects have been deployed in over 84 different locations across Nigeria.
- Implemented the five per cent inclusiveness of persons with disabilities in NCC’s staffing efforts in accordance with the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018.”
