The Director General, Consumer Protection Council Nigeria (CPC), Dr. Dupe Atoki, has declared that the council will curb consumer rights abuses in the country by forcing the major companies to comply with international standards.
Noting that the telecoms, aviation, banking and power sectors have the highest level of consumer rights abuses, she said the CPC has adopted major strategies of enforcing consumer rights and ensuring company’s compliance with the council’s enabling laws.
These strategies, she said, are sectoral intervention, litigation and improving the visibility of the council by using new methods and the redress of consumer complaints. These strategies, she said, are already yielding positive results.
Speaking at a public lecture organised by the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, the CPC boss said that a successful intervention in the activities of usually the dominant player in a given sector resonates into a bandwagon compliance and block adherence to regulation and best practice.
Atoki explained that “Sectoral intervention was identified as a major strategy for the evaluation of business operations under the various sectors in order to arrest identified adverse trends and thereby resolve individual complaints in the long run.”
She explained that this strategy is intended to focus on a sector by undertaking in-depth analysis of consumer complaints and total evaluation of business practices to identify systemic irregularities.
She noted, albeit happily, at the lecture entitled “The state of consumer rights protection in Nigeria”, that the council has already carried out successful major interventions in the food and beverage and aviation sectors which modified the behaviours of all the other players in those sectors for best practices.
In order to enforce consumer rights, she said that CPC also has the strategy of criminal prosecution of recalcitrant businesses or litigation to achieve satisfactory redress, which is already paying dividends.
Acknowledging the low awareness of consumer rights in the country, Mrs. Atoki said that the council was undertaking different measures to ensure increased knowledge of consumer rights and responsibilities.
These measures, she noted, are hosting of consumer roundtable on phone rights, publication of a compendium of the rights of telecom subscribers, launch of ‘Check the Best Before Date’ campaign.
Other measures, according to her, are revamping and updating the council’s website on a regular basis, using of social media to interact with consumers and establishing a strong media presence with a view to remaining in the consciousness of consumers.
Lamenting the wanton gross consumer rights abuses also in sectors such as satellite television, land transport, property, hospitality, food and beverage, home appliances, automobile and electronic commerce, the council’s boss regretted that “while free market is currently operational in Nigeria, all forms of consumer abuse still pervade virtually every sector of the economy denying consumers their rights.
Highlighting the abuses, she said that in the telecom sector, for instance, “consumers still contend with drop calls, unsolicited texts, calls, poor network, credit wipe off, amongst others, while consumers in the aviation sector experience regular delays and cancellation of flights without notice, damage and loss of baggage without compensation etcetera.”
In the banking sector, she said consumers experience ATM dispense error cases with prolonged resolution period, POS terminal issues, unexplained debit on consumer accounts. Equally, in the power sector, “consumers complain of outrageous estimated billings, non-provision of transformers, metres, wrongful disconnections and inadequate electricity supply.”
In the satellite television sector, she regretted that consumers were also struggling with regular disruptions, wrongful connections, poor service delivery and lack of redress for complaints. “Overloading, non refund of money when vehicles breakdown and use of dilapidated vehicles add to the burden of consumers of public transport services,” noted Atoki.
Similarly, Dr. Dupe Atoki lamented that “In the property sector, developers fail to keep to agreement terms, tie down consumers’ deposits for prolonged period and sometimes deliver substandard houses to consumers.”
Consumers under the hospitality sector were identified as not free from the abuses as “many hotels fail to live up to their claims/required standard, while vendors of holiday packages do not deliver on promises made.” Food and beverages industry are also guilty, said the DG, as foreign substances in drinks, sale of expired products, adulteration, improper storage, short measure, etcetera are rampant in the sector.
“Undiscerning consumers go home with substandard home appliances while non adherence to warranty by car dealers, sale of substandard spare parts, unqualified mechanics and ill-equipped workshops result in safety issues and loss of consumers hard earned money,” bemoaned the DG.
In the electronic commerce, the council’s DG lamented that the infringements of consumers’ rights here were completely unfair and potentially dangerous to the consumer. She said some of these abuses in this sector were unsolicited commercial communications and unfair use of personal information.
However, while the agency is cognisant of its challenges and having evolved some strategies to deliver on its mandate within available means, Mrs. Atoki still stressed that several factors were militating against the council’s bid to effectively protect the over 160 million consumers across all sectors of the economy whose rights are wantonly abused.
According to the DG, these factors are “perceived overlapping duties of regulatory agencies, impunity of business-peddling of influence, protection of self-interest by trade associations, lack of consumer awareness and apathy, inadequate funding, inadequate spread, understaffing and dearth of specialised staff, gaps in the CPC Act.”
Underscoring the point, Atoki said “Market failures violate consumer’s rights and inhibit their welfare in the marketplace. Impunity of businesses, rivalry among regulatory bodies due to seeming overlapping functions and protection of self interest by trade associations are part of the challenges inhibiting the effective protection of Nigerian consumers.”
Nonetheless, she asserted that genuine businesses must comply with regulations and specified standards for goods and services in the country adding that the political might of the federal government must be available to support the council at all times to put recalcitrant businesses in check.
She urged regulatory agencies to collaborate with each other in order to foster seamless relationship in the regulation of businesses to ensure effective protection of consumers.
“The council recognises the need for aggressive consumer awareness campaign. However, consumers should be more aggressive, proactive and disposed to complaining when dissatisfied with a product or service,” adding that mere grumble is not an option.
