Promos: Consumers Groan, Authorities Look Elsewhere

GSM service providers exploiting the lax regulation and absence of consumer advocacy groups which can bark and bite have turned to promotions and sometimes outright gambling in attempt to make more money, leaving some Nigerians and the economy to pay the heavy price, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now reveal.
Tales of how subscribers are losing hundreds of naira through promotions run by these operators are common place.
Some have also wondered aloud why the operators are allowed to run gambling schemes under the cover of promotions and reward programmes.
For instance, sales promotion is communications activities that attempt to provide added value or incentives to consumers, to stimulate immediate sales.
On the other hand, the cornerstone of any reward and recognition scheme is saying “thank you.”
Simply put, reward scheme do not have entry requirements, only gambling or lottery do.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had at different times banned telecom operators from promotions to check the excruciating poor quality of service provisioning.
Each time the Commission lifts the ban, consumers are inundated with endless promotions where consumers are urged through SMS to participate by using airtime worth of some amount to a short code to qualify for entry.
Most times the results of the promotions are inconclusive and there are no way to hold the operators liable as the consumer advocacy groups lack ability and capability to check the excesses.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek is working with its consultants to put together details of all the promos run from 2006 till date.
The details expected will include number of participants, winners and percentage that was given to the participants.
Nigerians insist that there must be a clear line between lottery, reward and sales promotions by service providers.
Only recently at the 55th edition of the NCC monthly Telecom Consumer Parliament in Lagos, Osa Uwadiae, assistant director, Enforcement & Compliance of National Lottery Regulatory Commission, described the promotions run by the GSM operators “as a game of chance in the name of sales promotion”
According to Uwadiae, the consumers have the right to be protected against fraudulent, misleading and deceitful information, advertisement or promo, and that on no account should operators claim that they are rewarding customers in the name of promo whereas they are ripping them off.
Nodding in agreement at the parliament, B.A Adeyinka of Consumer Protection Council, (CPC) said that his council does not accept as a reward scheme for customers that ask for premium rate to enter.