CPC: Enhancing service delivery through consumer awareness

About two weeks ago, the Consumer Protection Council launched a state of the art audio-visual studio, the first of its kind since the agency was established 16 years ago.

Apart from the fact that this is another step forward in the CPC’s efforts to check the prevalent business practice of consumer abuse with impunity, the move is an innovative strategy aimed at achieving the Council’s mandate of improved consumer awareness in the midst of low funding.

The establishment of the audio-visual studio at the CPC’s Corporate Headquarters, in Abuja, was a collaborative effort between the agency and Ford Foundation, a New York headquartered private foundation with the mission of advancing human welfare around the globe.

The Director-General, CPC, Mrs. Dupe Atoki, said, during the launch, that the establishment of the audio-visual studio was part of efforts targeted towards service delivery, especially in the area of consumer education.

The Ford Foundation’s support, which is premised on sustainability, also made provision for the training of selected staff of the Council, drawn from the Head Office, Lagos liaison office as well as the Council’s six zonal offices located in Awka, Oshogbo, Port Harcourt, Minna, Katsina and Bauchi. Already, the selected staff have been trained on camera handling, editing, production and management of the studio.

With the grant, the Council’s liaison and zonal offices now have audio-visual equipment, which will enable the trained staff to capture visuals and images from their locations and forward same to the studio for the production of CPC’s weekly television and radio programmes.

According to the DG, the establishment of the in-house studio will help enhance the agency’s consumer awareness activities and reduce its production costs.

She said, “The establishment of an in-house audio/visual studio set up by the Consumer Protection Council with the support of Ford Foundation is an initiative aimed at facilitating an aggressive consumer rights education and advocacy campaigns that will lead to increased consumer awareness and assertiveness in the marketplace.

“In view of the paucity of funds, we approached international donor agencies for funding support and the Ford Foundation graciously approved a proposal to support a varied consumer awareness programme, which includes the set up of a world class in-house audio/ visual studio for our media productions as the first component of the support. This project is expected to greatly reduce the cost of producing our TV and Radio programmes by over 60 per cent.”

  Atoki added, “I am delighted to say that the construction of this in-house studio, which began in January this year is now fully furnished with state of the art studio equipment and ready for the production of media programmes, including mass production of tapes and compact discs by the trained staff. With this development, CPC is now positioned on a sustainable pedestal to deliver its much needed consumer education advocacy and sensitisation campaigns through the renewal of its suspended weekly radio programme‘Consumer Speaks’ which will be broadcast nationwide.

“There will also be a new weekly TV programme to be tagged ‘Consumer is King’ which will also be broadcast nationwide. It is planned that the  TV and Radio programmes will commence by the third quarter of this year in July 2015.

With the TV and radio production cost reduced by over 60 per cent and the enthusiasm shown by the staff of the Council, the sustainability of the Council’s advocacy campaigns towards consumer education and sensitisation is now more probable.”

The CPC boss stressed that consumer education was a core mandate of the Council, adding that the CPC had already developed innovative awareness strategies towards addressing the problem of consumer ignorance and apathy.

She said, “On assumption of my duty, two years ago, I conducted a base line survey on consumer rights awareness in Nigeria, which revealed that consumers in Nigeria were largely unaware of their rights and where to seek redress. The need to increase the Council’s visibility and impact through an aggressive consumer rights education and advocacy campaigns became my top priority. Consumer education is a core mandate of the Council and a key deliverable of consumer protection. An informed consumer is the best protector of his or her rights. He or she is more proactive, assertive and confident to demand redress for any violations.

“Conversely, consumer ignorance and apathy contributes to poor service delivery, substandard production and impunity among businesses. To address the low consumer awareness, a number of strategies were developed on how to increase consumer rights education and advocacy through a variety of media platforms, with particular emphasis on the radio, television and social media; due to their vast reach both in the urban and grass root areas.”

However, experts and indeed Nigerians have continued to praise the current CPC leadership for paying attention to very good service delivery especially in core aspects of its operations such as consumer awareness; surveillance and enforcement; speedy redress of consumer complaints; quality assurance and human capacity development.

In less than two years of being at the helm of affairs of the CPC, Atoki has made concerted efforts to ensure that the Council’s impact is felt across critical sectors of the economy, which hitherto were replete with consumer abuses.  Consequently, there has been a considerable reduction in consumer abuses by business operators as well as improvement in consumer satisfaction with respect to all products and services in Nigeria.

According to Atoki, underpinning the new focus of the CPC towards ensuring an all inclusive protection of consumer rights is the need to ensure that Nigerian consumers get value for their money.

She stressed that the agency would continue to ensure that all manufacturers and service providers adheredto international best practices.

“The Council takes consumer protection seriously and will ensure that all local and international brands marketed in Nigeria meet the same high quality standard and grievance resolution policy adopted by them anywhere else in the world.  Consequently, the Council will ensure that any product sold in Nigeria must conform to the same standard of the same product anywhere in the world.

“The Council is determined to ensure that all manufacturers of products and providers of services meet international best practices. Nigeria should not be a dumping ground for substandard products.Our concern is for the health of Nigerian consumers who may suffer injuries from the consumption of products that do not meet the required safety standard or health regulations. I must reiterate that the consumer’s interest is of utmost importance to the Council; hence the Council will continue to intervene in all sectors where consumers are denied value for money or abused.”

In keeping with the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, the Council has continued to carry out activities to ensure speedy resolution of consumer complaints as well as causing offending service/goods providers to compensate and provide relief and safeguard to affected consumers.

The Council has brought smiles back on the faces of several aggrieved Nigerian consumers, whose complaints had been successfully resolved in various sectors of the Nigerian economy including banking, telecoms, automobile, aviation, food and beverages. In this regard, the Council has received numerous letters of appreciation from Nigerians from all walks of like expressing their gratitude for the emergence of a new CPC.

Stakeholders say that if the current tempo of activities on consumer awareness and protection are sustained, getting value for money spent on goods and services will soon be the norm in the Nigerian market place.

For this, they advocate strong support for the new CPC in its quest for a Nigeria with zero tolerance for consumer rights abuses.

Hope Moses-Ashike