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Consumer' Rights On the Front Burner(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Buoyed by a growing and discerning middle class, consumer rights have taken centre stage in the last six months. Things started looking bright for Nigerian consumers in January. Regulatory authorities in the consumer sector promised to right some wrongs. Though there wasn't any uphill in the market, the year which precedes an election year do have promise for increased political activities, which will encourage flow of cash, thereby increasing purchasing power. Six months into the year, one can conveniently look back and say the year has been good this far. Telecom sector Towards the end of last year, the federal government read the riot act that it was set to prosecute telecommunications operators found to be fleecing subscribers through poor service delivery by January 2014. The Minister of Communications Technology, Omobola Johnson, made the announcement at a news conference in Lagos. She said the ministry had commenced collaboration with the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) to sanction operators rendering poor services or collecting charges from subscribers for services not rendered. In January, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) had toed the same lane and promised to give necessary support to any consumer ready to prosecute any telecommunication operator in the country over poor services. Following this development and with little or no improvement on the services of the operators, the Director General of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mrs. Dupe Atoki, had in March frowned at the poor service delivery and called for a meeting with the chief executive officers of the various companies. At the meeting, the DG had identified poor network service, unsolicited services, unlawful deductions and wrong billing as some of the challenges of the consumers. Others included exploitative automated services, unauthorised SIM swaps, poor Internet service and poor customer services. Though things are yet to be hundred percent perfect, indications are that the operators are now more responsive to consumers' interests. Consuming class Nigerian consuming class has continued to swell in number and sophistication. For instance, a survey carried out by this reporter revealed that more Nigerian mobile phone users had changed their style. They have elevated to usage of smartphones and blackberry devices instead of ordinary mobile phones that were status symbol a few years ago. Also, the stability in the economy has led to increase in consuming class. The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), in a report released two months ago, had announced that the Nigeria's consumer market is worth more than $400 billion. In the report entitled "Nigeria's renewal: Delivering Inclusive Growth in Africa's Largest Economy", the MGI estimated that the value of Nigeria's consumer market could reach $1.4 trillion by 2030 with food and non-food consumer goods accounting for one trillion of the total. It stated that one of the most important under-appreciated changes in Nigeria was the growing size and strength of its consuming class. "While the middle income is 680 dollars per year and 43 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, the number of households in the consuming class is growing rapidly," it said. It further stated that In 2013, an estimated eight million households had income of more than 7,500 dollars per year, the threshold which MGI considers as 'emerging consumers'. "With sufficient income to meet all basic necessities and have money to start buying more and better food as well as health and education services," it added. It stated that the labour productivity in the country had grown by 3.6 per cent per year since 2010 and had contributed to the greatest share of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The report, however, stated that in spite the improvement in labour productivity, Nigeria was still far behind other major developing economies. "At less than 9,500 dollars per worker per year, Nigerian output is 58 per cent less than the average of seven large developing economies. "Nigeria also has a low ratio of employment to population of 31 per cent compared with 52 per cent in Brazil, 46 per cent in Indonesia and 48 per cent in Russia. "Productivity is also being held back by poor infrastructure, which increases the cost of doing business in the country," it said. The report said that the oil and gas sector had many opportunities to improve productivity, adding however, that the large share of the economy that existed outside oil and gas was where the productivity gap to other countries emerged. It explained that the recent rebasing exercise had demonstrated that the natural resources sector was a smaller share of the country's economy. The report further said that the rebasing had cleared the misconception by people outside Nigeria that believed the oil sector was the engine of growth in the Nigerian economy as it is with several Middle Eastern economies. BB Campaign Last month, the federal government renewed its crusade against the existence of sub-standard products in the country as it endorsed a fresh onslaught on the enforcement of date-markings on products. The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga made the government's position known while launching the "Check the BB (Best Before) Date" campaign of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) in Abuja, just as the Council has given a six-month ultimatum to product dealers to stop indiscriminate storing, which could undermine the quality of products. In a keynote address read on his behalf by a director in the office of the minister, Mr. Jonathan Juma, he declared that government is more determined to move against industry operators compromising the interest of Nigerian consumers with their activities or products. He said: "It is observed that some industries engage in the sale of expired products or products with improper date markings, while others have been implicated in the alteration of Best Before dates in order to maximise profit". Aviation sector If there is any success made out of the Aviation sector, the glory should possibly go to the Consumer Protection Council that has in the last one year become a thorn in the flesh of recalcitrant operators. For CPC that had in the past been considered as a weak agency, its activities in the last six months have changed the perception. In March this year, the council had taken Arik Airline to task over its reported ill-treatment of passengers of its New York- bound flight WT3107 on Monday March 31, 2014. The airline was reported to have kept the passengers of the flight on board for about one and half hours under suffocating condition due to the breakdown of its air-conditioner. In the same way, CPC had kicked against the ill-treatment meted out to passengers of Ethiopian Airlines of Saturday, May 18, 2013 at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, describing it as a violation of international best practices. The Council in a letter, calling the airline to order, said its reaction was based on several complaints received from passengers of the said flight, particularly those of the Business Class, who felt their rights were wantonly abused. Following the council's complaint the airline had swiftly apologized to the affected passengers through the Council. In the case of AERO, the council seemed to have used statutory legislations of the federal government in carrying out its investigation and enquiries, establishing the infractions and awarding compensation based on existing consumer laws including but not limited to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)'s Passengers Bill of Rights. Meanwhile, section 12 of CPC Act is designed to ensure that consumers receive the benefit of any consumer protection law; bye-law or regulation howsoever such an 'enactment' was created. Unexpectedly, comments trailed the issue as a few stakeholders felt the agency had gone beyond its boundary. Those who believed CPC was right on its decision on AERO are of the opinion that the word 'enactment' gives the council the right and capability to enforce the PBR of NCAA. NCAA vs CPC For the first time, the months under review recorded a clash between CPC and NCAA. The aviation regulatory body had few months ago thrown caution to the wind and cried out that the Consumer Protection Council; (CPC) was encroaching into matters within its regulatory purview. Through a two-page advertorial in a few national newspapers, under the title 'NCAA Frowns at CPC's Encroachment into its Regulatory Province' the aviation regulatory body listed its functions under the law and how CPC has in recent time been singling out the aviation sector in an attempt to provide redress to consumers' complaints. The statement, which specifically made reference to last April's Order of Council from CPC, under which far reaching sanctions were purportedly meted out to Aero Contractors Company of Nigeria Limited, cleverly spelt out the functions of both agencies. While admitting the fact that CPC is constitutionally empowered to provide redress to consumers' complaints, NCAA pointed out that :"The general public need to know that while it is correct that CPC, which was established by the Consumer Protection Council Act of 1992, was given the functions to, among others, provide redress to consumers' complaints through negotiation, mediation and consultation as well as cause offending service/goods providers to compensate and provide relief and safeguard to injured consumers. These functions are general and not specific to civil aviation." Based on statute provisions of the NCAA acts, the Aviation regulatory body said it was clear that the general powers given to the CPC by the earlier legislation to redress consumers' complaints should yield to the specific powers given to NCAA by the latter legislation in so far as the subject of civil aviation consumer protection is concerned. NCAA made reference to CPC's sanction against Aero Contractors, relying on Part 19 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NigCARs), otherwise known as Passenger Bill of Rights. It stated that the NigCARs was made by NCAA pursuant to powers to make regulations given to the Authority by the Civil Aviation Act, 2006. Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |