Focus on consumer protection, CPPE tells FCCPC

The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises has said the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission is shifting focus from its primary mandate of promoting competition and protecting consumer rights to engaging in price control.

CPPE’s Director, Dr Muda Yusuf, said the FCCPC appeared to be transforming into a price control agency, rather than fulfilling its role as a consumer protection body.

Yusuf said in a statement issued on Sunday that the commission’s actions, particularly its focus on pricing within the retail sector and recent threats to market leaders and traders, are misguided and risk undermining the core objectives of consumer protection.

it was earlier reported that the FCCPC issued a warning to businesses against exploitative pricing practices, and threatened punitive measures on guilty offenders including prosecution.

Yusuf emphasised that consumer protection is not synonymous with direct price control, especially at the retail level.

He argued that the FCCPC is addressing symptoms rather than the root causes of inflation in the economy and that tackling inflation is the responsibility of fiscal and monetary authorities, not the FCCPC.

“The best way to protect consumers from exploitation is by promoting robust competition across all sectors,” Yusuf asserted.

He pointed to the success seen in the telecommunications sector, where intense competition has benefited consumers through better services and pricing.

Yusuf stated that similar competition-driven strategies should be adopted in other sectors rather than focusing on price regulation.

According to the CPPE, the complexity of the retail sector, which is characterized by a multitude of players, over eight million retailers nationwide, including thousands of supermarkets and department stores, makes it less prone to price gouging due to the high number of players and the perishable nature of many goods sold.

The CPPE pointed out that several macroeconomic factors, such as the depreciation of the naira, high energy costs, and logistics challenges, are the real drivers of inflation.

The CPPE director urged the FCCPC to focus on understanding the economic dynamics rather than targeting retailers who are themselves victims of the current economic challenges

This came as the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association urged the Federal Government to address key economic fundamentals to induce low commodity prices and service charges.

A statement issued on Sunday by NECA noted that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission recently granted a one-month period to traders and other market stakeholders to moderate the prices of their goods and services or face enforcement by the commission.