A Loooming Monopoly in the Nigeria Telecoms Industry

It is still very fresh in our memories the state of the nation when NITEL was the sole provider of telecommunications services in the country. It was monopoly at its zenith. Consumers never got value for their money and whoever dared to raise an objection was bullied into submission.
This monopolized situation almost reared up its ugly head with past leaderships of the Nigeria communications commission (NCC). A particular telecoms company took over the market power and almost pushed other companies out of business. The smaller telecos were the most hit by this development. It affected them to the point of shut down.
A monopolized sector of any economy is surely bound to fail. Monopoly brings about entrenchment. Consumers wriggle in pains in a monopolized environment while the monopolist smiles to the bank. Service delivery in a monopolized environment is nothing to write home about. Consumers never get value for their money and this creates an unhealthy relationship between the consumers and their customers.
However, placing monopoly and competition side by side, it is obvious that a competitive environment is better of and much more proactive. A competitive environment creates a level playing ground for all to thrive upon which leads to growth and development of the sector.
A competitive environment is characterized by choices. Consumers can choose their devices from an increasing list of manufacturers at constantly decreasing prices, choose their connectivity from a bouquet of offers with constantly decreasing prices and choose their applications from a collection of low cost or free options. Consumers get the best value for goods and services when there is competition. Even though many a time, it is to the detriment of the service provider who in order not lose customers to a rival company go extra miles to provide stress free customer service to address the needs of their subscribers. On the other hand, they must be able to maintain a healthy balance between competitive policies(to provide value for consumers), and policies aimed at ensuring that companies can continue to thrive and provide jobs, benefits to shareholders as well as tax revenue.