The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency have joined forces to enhance consumer rights protection in Lagos.
According to a statement recently, this was revealed during a recent visit by LASCOPA’s General Manager to the FCCPC headquarters in Abuja.
The acting Executive Vice Chairman of the FCCPC, Dr. Adamu Abdullahi, while welcoming the GM of LASCOPA, Afolabi Solebo, said the two agencies would soon embark on joint inspection of supermarkets, grocery stores and other trading outlets to ensure conformity with the consumer rights law.
He highlighted the necessity of collaboration to effectively safeguard the interests of consumers, particularly in the face of emerging challenges such as price gouging and other misleading practices being perpetrated on consumers.
He noted that Lagos, being the country’s bustling economic hub with a lot of industry and service providers, must feel the impact and presence of the commission.
“We have therefore agreed and planned that in the coming week, we will be coming to Lagos to have a joint enforcement, especially on issues of falsehood, misconception, and misleading practices in the formal and informal sectors of the economy,” Abdullahi said.
The planned joint enforcement operations in Lagos, according to Solebo, is a proactive approach to tackling issues like non-display of product prices and ensuring fair refund policies, among other consumer rights-related issues.
He noted that LASCOPA had been at the forefront of securing compensations for aggrieved consumers through the cooperation of the judiciary, saying that the successes recorded by the agency underscored the effectiveness of collaborative efforts in upholding consumer rights.
It was reported that the recent removal of fuel subsidy and depreciation of the naira have led to skyrocketing cost of living.
However, some Nigerians have complained of arbitrary inflation of prices by traders and service providers who blame foreign exchange and fuel crises for their actions.
