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Truecaller (an application that identifies callers of GSM users who are not in their phone book), has said telecommunications operators are the source of the bulk of spam calls in Nigeria.
Spam calls are unsolicited calls and messages received on mobile phones that are advertorial.
In a recent ranking carried out by the company, Nigeria was ranked ninth out of the top 20 countries affected by spam calls in the world. While India, USA, Brazil, Chile and South Africa were the top five countries.
“Similar to its regional partner, Kenya, Nigeria also has an issue with scam calls (27 per cent), but is plagued more by calls from operators,” the company wrote in a statement.
According to the research, 61 per cent of the total spam calls were from telecoms operators. During these calls, call centre agents would often seek to inform customers of promotional offers.
Twenty-seven per cent were said to be nuisance calls, 10 per cent were scam calls while 2 per cent were telemarketing calls, which are promotion calls from companies, and surveys being done by analytics firms on behalf of their clients.
In the first week of May 2016, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) mandated telecommunication companies to activate a Do Not Disturb code, giving June 30, 2016, as the deadline for implementation.
