Need For Competition Law In Nigeria

Over time, the Nigerian consumer has always complained about what they regard as unfair pricing by some service providers in the country.

The general feeling among the consumers is that they are being exploited by the service providers especially when, by their estimation, the service rendered is not commensurate with the fees charged for it.

The consumers, to get the service providers charge them competitive prices for services rendered, often approach the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), the government agency statutorily empowered to ensure that consumer rights are upheld and to administer sanctions where they’re trampled on. Unfortunately, the CPC is not empowered to carry out such duties, theirs is to ensure that consumers get value for products and services paid for.

Recently, in the case consumers brought before the CPC against Pay-Tv provider, DSTV, demanding that the council compels it to review its charges downwards, the CPC made it clear that it was not empowered by law to regulate the prices of products and services in the market place.

This underscores the need for the National Assembly to begin to work towards an independent Nigerian Competition Law that would protect consumers from the shylock and exploitative tendencies of businesses.

There is currently no law in the country solely dedicated to competition, even though it exists in some Acts, such as the Nigeria Communications Act. Although there exists a Price Control Act, this only serves to protect consumers of stable and essential items, like sugar, salt, milk, flour, matches, petroleum products, motor vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles’ with their spare parts (“Controlled Commodities”). The Price Control Act empowers the Price Control Board to fix the Controlled Price range for these essential items and makes it a criminal offence for any person to sell any of the listed Controlled Commodities above their approved controlled price.

While there are numerous Bills before the National Assembly on this issue, sadly, in our opinion, none has been passed into law, making it easy for product and service providers to get away with their antics.

A competition law also known as anti-trust and anti-monopoly law is one that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. Competition laws promote and maintain fair competition in markets by discouraging and preventing price or rate fixing, price discrimination, price gouging, restrictive exclusive contracts, abuse of a dominant market position, predatory pricing practices, conspiratorial pricing between some competitors against other competitors, hoarding, institutionalised boycotting of a competitor, supplier or equipment vendor, among others.

It is our view that with Nigeria’s high population which makes it a good business destination for investors, laws such as these, which protect the consumer must be in place. When the law comes into effect, those saddled with regulation must also be alive to their responsibilities so that we are not confronted with a situation where docile regulators, in spite of existing laws, allow impunity to go on while they look the other way.

Source: leadership