Competition legislation will grow businesses — CPC boss

Mr Babatunde Irukera, the Director -General, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), said a good competition regime would aid the growth of businesses in the country.

Irukera said this at the 2018 World Competition Day organised by the Centre for Trade and Business Environment Advocacy (CTBA) and the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) on Wednesday in Abuja.

The theme of the event was “Digital Economy, Innovation and Competition and Consumer Protection Bill.’’

Irukera, during a panel discussion at the event said failure of a competition regime would prevent more investors from coming into the market.

He, however, said that competition legislation may not necessarily improve the capacity of those who are unable to succeed in the market.

“This is because it is not every time that it is the lack of competition that is their failure to succeed, sometimes governance and all other factors may be the case.

“But if you look at it from the consumer protection standpoint, on economic development standpoint and employment stand point, you should be more concerned about those who are unable to succeed.

“Although, the existence of the legislation alone will deal with some of the challenges.’’

On the challenges faced by consumers through payment systems, Irukera said the key things was to have a clear service level agreement between the main systems and vendors.

He said the case where consumers sometimes engage in transactions that does not get concluded and the Bank or vendor referred them to e-transact was not ideal.

Irukera said the consumer do not know e-transact, and did not choose the option of e-transact, and no option whatsoever was given to him to choose from, so he should not be referred to e-transact.

“So, we need to have a service level agreement that makes things seamless on the front end, so you can have indemnity system.

“We need a service level agreement so that if something does not go well, there will be a way to go about it.

“There has to be something that bridges that gap, and we are hopeful that with time this will be improve.’’

The director – general said the council had spent more than a year trying to conclude a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that would assist in writing the guidelines for electronic transactions.

Irukera, while speaking on the challenges faced by consumers in the telecommunication sector, said there was the need for stronger collaboration between regulators.