CONSUMER PROTECTION LAWS IN NIGERIA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON NIGERIAN CONSUMERS
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CONSUMER PROTECTION LAWS IN NIGERIA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON NIGERIAN CONSUMERS
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Most Nigerian consumers are unaware of the existing laws that protect them, particularly final consumers who are unfamiliar with the current consumer protection agencies and legislation that protect them, as well as their implications.
This age of research is of considerable importance because of the abuse and neglect of customers in Nigeria, as well as the ongoing increase in false and contaminated goods and services in Nigeria, which has left consumers in a terrible situation.
However, the complex nature of the product and the consumers’ inability to detect it during a physical inspection, as well as their continued agitation on several occasions when they were denied their rights, prompted the enactment of laws,
rules, and regulations, as well as the establishment of regulatory agencies with specialised manpower and knowledge to protect consumers, such as NAFDAC, SON, NDLEA, and others.
The Consumer Protection Council was created by Decree 66 of 1992. It is established up to help in the protection of consumers in Nigeria and to undertake several additional functions, such as:
a. To encourage the implementation of necessary steps to guarantee that products are safe for their intended or generally safe use.
b. To compel an offending company, firm, trade association, or individual to protect, pay, offer redress, and shield affected customers or communities from the negative consequences of technologies that are fundamentally hurtful, injurious, violent, or highly hazardous.
c. They also perform any other tasks imposed on the council by this Act, etc.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Despite all of Nigeria’s existing consumer protection agencies and legislation, a large percentage of consumers remain dissatisfied.
These are mirrored in the continual exposition by journalists of unethical corporate practices, company insensitivity to the aspirations of the consumer in one of the dailys.
It was claimed that a woman bought a packet of Omo detergent and when she arrived home, she discovered that half of it was sawdust; what a fraud; may this be aimed at Nigerian consumers?
Virtually all of Nigeria’s sellers and manufacturers, whose primary goal in business is profit maximisation at any costs, engage in the sale of contaminated, false, and harmful products and services, with little regard for the effects on consumers.
Unilver Nigeria Plc was temporarily closed down by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in the third week of May 2005 due to its product CLOSE UP toothpaste’s reduced foaming nature.
However, NAFDAC closed the production location to allow the corporation to remedy the discovered irregularity in their products.
In Nigeria, several consumers have died as a result of food poisoning, which was either induced by the product’s marketers or makers.
One example is the case of INDOMIE INSTANT NOODLES (a product of De United Foods Industries Ltd) in the middle of 2004. According to the report, a large number of customers of the product in the Lagos area died as a result of consuming the product.
It has also been documented that at least 40% of the patients in the hospital who lathered died as a result of counterfeit and contaminated items on the market.
Based on the instances provided above, it is reasonable to conclude that they are the most abused consumers in Nigeria. This is the study’s primary focus.
1.3 GOALS OF THE STUDY
The study’s aims are as follows:
a. To investigate the function of consumer protection in safeguarding consumer rights in Nigeria.
b. To develop rules for handling product liability.
c. To critically examine how consumer rights have been exploited in Nigeria.
d. To understand the numerous laws that protect consumers in Nigeria.
b. Provide all required recommendations on how to eradicate contaminated products in Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS.
a. What role do consumer protection laws play in defending the interests of Nigerian consumers?
b. Are the standards for handling product liability beneficial to consumers?
c. Has this agency succeeded in exposing the many consumer abuses in Nigeria?
d. To what extent have consumers in Nigeria been made aware of the laws that protect them?
a. Have Nigeria’s consumer protection organisations been successful in eliminating fake and adulterated products?
1.5 Significance of the Study
This study, however, is critical since it will assist and educate the general public (consumers) on what they do not know about consumer rights and the role of consumer protection legislation in defending consumer rights.
This study is especially important for business owners and consumers because it acknowledges that corporate success is closely linked to how effectively a company pleases and satisfies its customers.
The study will assist customers understand that they have rights that they must exercise while they consume goods and services. The basic laws outlined for customers are mostly intended to enhance consumers’ egos and dispel myths about societal indifference.
This is due to the fact that the business term “CAVEAT EMPTOR” (Latin for “buyer beware”) is no longer relevant today, thus consumer protection law should respond to the task of awakening consumers’ attention.
The findings of this survey will be represented not only in ethereal feelings of goodwill, but also in repeat sales and brand loyalty, both of which are the hallmarks of satisfied customers.
We can’t help but agree with Willian Kaye (1970) that an unhappy consumer goes through a smelly change, becoming an anti-customer who isn’t satisfied with simply boycotting a brand but will go to any length to sway potential customers against it.
Nonetheless, it is hoped that the study’s findings would be applied to other parts of the country to better understand how consumers are safeguarded by consumer protection laws.
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