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Eugene Juwah, the
Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has
said that the agency will ensure compliance with regulations that will
favour tariff reduction in telephone calls. Mr Juwah spoke in Abuja on
Tuesday, when the leadership of the Association of Licensed Telecom
Operators of Nigeria visited him.

The News Agency of
Nigeria reports that Zain had on Monday announced a reduction in tariff
on calls within and outside its network. Mr Juwah said that the
commission had set up a task force to work out short, medium and long
term measures aimed at tariff reduction. “In the course of their work,
we will be interacting with the service providers at various levels,”
he said. “I want to use this opportunity to seek your cooperation in
bringing a lasting solution to the issue of quality service in the
various networks.”

The NCC executive vice chairman said that the commission would
continue to foster competition by encouraging new entrants into the
market at all times. “We also expect the operators to be responsive to
their subscribers, without the subscribers, no operator will exist and
sustain it services,” he said. Earlier, Gbenga Adebayo, the chairman of
the association, said that prices and cost of services were not
determined by regulatory and policy intervention, but by market forces.
“If you charge higher than the market can accommodate you will be out
of business,” he said. “Price reduction and prices are strictly
commercial and they are driven by market forces.”