The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has raised concern over the quality of equipment used by infrastructure servicing companies in the country.
The association said it is worried that some of the companies that recently won contracts to provide and manage telecoms facilities in the country might be tempted to use low quality equipment due to the low amount at which they obtained the contracts.
Remarking on the issue, ATCON Chairman, LanreAjayi, said the initial poor quality of service problem faced by the telecom sector was as a result of substandard equipment used by these service providers.
He expressed concern that some of the foreign companies that recently got telecoms servicing contracts in the country at a low cost might be planning to use substandard equipments.
According to him, outsourcing could go wrong when cheap vendors were engaged as they would always sell cheap products.
Ajayi observed that some of the service providers were patronising equipment vendors that offered cheaper prices, as against those with more expensive but qualitative equipment.
“Outsourcing engineering services cannot be faulted, but the concern is about the competence levels of the companies being outsourced to. Are they really qualified for the jobs?” he asked.
He cautioned that the industry might experience setbacks if the servicing companies were not monitored to ensure compliance to standard.
The telecoms umbrella body boss also advocated for local content to give equal participation to local servicing companies.
“Most of the companies engaged are foreign and some indigenous companies that have the competences are not happy. They feel they should be patronised. I think we should start to address this.
“The Federal Government should come up with a local content law as is the case in the oil sector. There must be an enabling policy framework,” he said.
