Why We Established Emergency Call Centres –NCC Chief

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has established Emergency Call Centres (ECCs) in the 36 states including Abuja in order to strengthen telecommunications services in the country.

The Vice Chairman of the Commission Mr Eugene Juwah dropped the hint recently in Abuja in an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Communications.

Mr Juwah, said the emergency call centres are designed to permit the response agencies to receive emergency calls.

According to him, the centres were at various stages of completion, saying that the emergency call will be enabled by a dedicated three-digit toll free number made from any of the national telecommunications networks.

Furthermore, he said the centre will be useful to fire service, ambulance, police and other agencies as it will alert them appropriately, for swift assistance to members of the public.

He told the Senate Committee that NCC will hand over the centres to the states upon completion as he warned against its abuse.

The leader of the Senate Committee Senator Gilbert Nnaji, pointed out that the aim of the meeting was to measure the opinion of the agency (NCC) on some national issues.

Senator Nnaji, also advised the agency to be up and going so as to enable service providers in the country to deliver maximum service to the people.

He also demanded why the NCC was yet to sanction service providers that did not measure among its main performance indicators.