(News Investigators) The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says the commission will in 2020 intensify enforcement of companies’ response to consumer complaints.
The Director-General of the Commission, Mr Babatunde Irukera made the disclosure at a strategic media engagement in Abuja.
Irukera said it would henceforth hold companies accountable on consumers’ dissatisfaction of products.
He said the commission had also devised mechanisms that would put them on their toes to prevent what could create customers’ dissatisfaction.
The DG said the organisation would target robust enforcement and wider consumer education in 2020.
He said the enforcement would be by holding companies accountable on how they responded to consumers complaints of some products.
According to him, if we can accomplish those two better than we have done before, together we will have served this nation in a way that deserves a national honour.
“Our most important role in complaint resolution must be to get providers to be more actively vibrant and timely in resolving complaints.
“We are not supposed to be policemen with respect to resolving complaints. I will like a legacy of companies doing better than the regulators.
“In 2020, we should focus on two things, robust enforcement, wider consumer education,’’ he said.
Highlighting some of the achievements of the commission in 2019, the director-general said the commission had improved in consumer complaints resolution.
He said that the commission was currently receiving complaints through multiple channels including twitter, whatsapp, electronic mails, among others.
Irukera noted that the commission was receiving between 700 and 1000 consumer complaints annually before he took over office but now receiving approximately 1000 complaints weekly.
“One thing that I think 2019 has brought and the commission has gotten good at is resolving consumer complaints.
“When I took up the job, I will say that the commission was receiving between 700 and 1000 complaints per annum but now, we are receiving approximately 1000 even in a week.
“The channels for reaching us have expanded and criticisms about our responsiveness and ability to resolve complaints have gone down. It has not stopped but it has gone down.
“It has been a very active year. The resource base of the commission has not increased but resources must not be the excuse for non-performance or failure.
“I do not consider this an incredible accomplishment because what I am hoping to leave is not a multi-company customer service technical support desk. That is not what a consumer regulator should be.
“If we are doing so much better and people are getting to know us more, consider you more reliable and now doing 1000 complaints a week, can your capacity to continue to do that be sustained, the answer is no,’’ he explained.
He appealed to the media to join hands with the commission to improve the mechanism for enforcing consumer rights in the country. (NAN)
