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CPC Advocates for Competition Law in Country

Allafrica.com, September 23, 2008

The Director General of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mrs.Ify Umenyi, has called for the enactment of a competitive law regime in the country to give consumers value for their money.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja during a National Reference Group meeting on competition policy in Nigeria, the Director General said competition law deals with the availability of goods and services in the market at competitive prices.

She said, “The council has always been interested in seeing the emergence of a competition policy in Nigeria because of its close relationship with consumer protection. Competition policy deals with the availability of goods and services in the market while CPC protects these goods and services by unquenchable conducts such as deception and their false advertisement.”

Mrs Umenyi said the 7PU4 project is a programme and initiative designed to strengthen constituencies’ regime in seven West African countries to refine and ensure effective implementation of competition policy.

In a presentation on ‘competition regime scenario in Nigeria’ by Adedeji Babatunde Abiodun,Coordinator General/Founder,Cosumers Empowerment Organisation of Nigeria (CEON),said government is committed to developing a competition law but there is no consensus on the agency to house the law.

He said in 2000, the Federal Government, through the BPE, set up a competition and anti-rust reform committee which came-up with a draft policy and bill called, ‘Federal Competition Bill’ that was presented to the National Assembly in 2002.

He said, “In the immediate past tenure of the National Assembly, two different bills on competition/Anti-rust were reportedly passed by the Senate and House of Representatives. Efforts to reconcile and harmonise the two versions of the bills have not been successful till date, hence the issues are not being regulated by any legislation in Nigeria.”

He advocated the establishment of a Federal Competition Commission (FCC) under the draft bill to initiate policies on competition, protect consumers by nurturing a competitive environment and monitor the abuse of market dominance etc.

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