AN ACT TO PROTECT CONSUMERS IN ALL ASPECTS OF COMMERCE, COMES INTO FORCE
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Federal Competition Consumer Protection Commission, Head quarters, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, and the creation of, Federal Competition Consumer Protection Council, FCCPC.
For the first time in the nation’s history a legislation on Competition framework was solely passed with the view to protect Nigerian consumers from predators fond of under handed schemes to exploit gullible and unsuspecting consumers.
The Federel Protection Council, FEPC, has now legally been saddled with wider scope of operations.
FCCPC helmsman, barrister Babatunde Irukera, educating road travelers of their rights and responsibilities
The new agency now backed by federal legislation, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council, FCCPC, is now wielding the mandate and the powers to approve and decline mergers and acquisitions, regulate monopolies and check any emanating abuses/exploitation, and also to tackle price fixing, as well as exploitative collusion between competitors
According to the tweet by the Director General, FPC, the goal from the well defined task in its present scope is to protect consumers and citizens, and to ensure they have choices that are fairly-priced and not exploitative.
The tweet further enunciated the council’s task as to generate a robust mechanism for complaint and redress when dealing with grievances without any deviation from the constitution of Nigeria and in total conformity to the act that established the agency.
Barrister Babatunde Irukera, FCCPC, DG/CEO
Barrister Tunde Irukera, Director General, FCCPC, explained in his tweet that, “Sometimes we erroneously attribute consumer spending only to disposable income. It’s not just that. Consumer spending is also about consumer satisfaction. If you’re satisfied, you spend more. It is also about fair pricing…”
He now volunteer the following comment for the Electricity Distribution Companies, popularly known as DISCOS, “So, the Discos are natural monopolies.
Explaining the circumstance for such anomalies Irukera tweeted, “this happened before we had competition law. If we had FCCP Act on the day the DisCos were privatized, they would not have been privatized in that manner because that would have been in violation of the law.” The bill is no birth at a time could never be as auspicious as now. No doubt events will begin to unfold in feverish pitch
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