The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission on Thursday carried out an enforcement raid at two supermarkets in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to ensure adherence to price display and quantity regulations.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Dr Adamu Abdullahi, said the exercise targeted at reducing the high cost of food commodities nationwide, would be extended to Lagos, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kano, Kaduna and other cities in the coming weeks.
Abdullahi said unannounced inspections would be carried out at stores and open markets across different states as part of measures to control the abnormal price surges which had failed to respond to the appreciation of the naira in recent weeks.
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The FCCPC boss further disclosed plans to raid some open major markets on Friday (today) in the FCT to checkmate the arbitrary increase in prices of consumables by traders.
During the exercise that lasted several hours, the FCCPC sealed 4U Supermarket and evacuated 33 bags of suspected fake stallion and caprice rice filled with weevils from one of the branches of the same supermarket located at 58 Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse II.
Earlier on Thursday, the commission had ordered its operatives to intensify monitoring of both formal and informal markets to identify businesses engaged in unnecessary inflation of prices for required enforcement action.
The move was in direct response to concerns raised by consumers about the rising costs of goods, which go against the appreciation of the naira.
Food inflation has been a recurring issue influencing the steady increase of Nigeria’s headline inflation of 33.2 per cent, and an unprecedented food inflation rate of 40 per cent in March 2024.
The situation was exacerbated by the extensive fall of the naira against the dollar in January and February leading to the soaring prices of essential goods and services, raising the cost of living to an all-time high.
Although the Presidency had vowed to continue its campaign against racketeers, urging Nigerians to expect a stronger naira, a significant drop in the prices of essential commodities has been elusive.
In a statement on Thursday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, disclosed that President Bola Tinubu had directed consumer protection agencies to ensure that the local prices reflect the rising value of the naira.
“But there is still much work to be done and this is not a time for celebration. It is a time for doubling down and working harder to ensure that inflation is sustainably brought down in short order.
“Consumer protecting regulatory agencies must step up enforcement to ensure that our people are not short-changed by enterprises that fail to reflect the prevailing exchange rates on the pricing of goods and services across the board.
“As our private and publicly-owned refineries resume operations between now and the first quarter of 2025, the nation’s cash position will dramatically improve to the extent that Nigerians can rightly expect a stronger Naira and a fair reflection of its strength in the prices of commodities in the market place,” said Ngelale.
The Presidency also assured Nigerians of better days ahead, saying the benefits of the reforms will be “more evident as the administration progresses.’’
“Once you join the rising spending power of Africa’s largest population with the historic availability of trillions of naira for consumer credit that will bolster the real sector, you will see why Nigerians will be most pleased that they elected a financial engineer and businessman as president by the end of his first term in office, even as the signs are increasingly more evident today,” the Presidential spokesman stated.
Responding to the charge, the FCCPC boss in an interview with Newsmen on Thursday stated that the sharp practices of the supermarkets were injurious to the consumers despite a stronger naira and reduced cost of production.
He said the 4U supermarket was selling rice from Stallion and Caprice, even though these companies ceased rice production in August 2022.
It was also discovered that the prices of some products on the shelf were different from the prices at the selling point, while some commodities had no price tags.
Abdullahi further explained that necessary sanctions would be meted out to culpable persons after investigations.
He vowed to take firm measures against companies caught engaging in unfair market practices like price manipulation, excessive pricing or cartel formation.
In an interview with newsmen after the raid, the General Manager of 4U Supermarket, Yunusa Yusuf, who took responsibility for the fake foreign rice, promised to expose the suppliers.
He pledged to abide by FCCPC regulations on consumer rights.
The president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gabriel Idahosa described the move as shocking and an overreach of the powers of the FCCPC.
Idahosa further stated that it did not fall within the purview of the government to regulate the prices of products in the market.
He said, “That is a very crude behaviour. The government, at any point, should not fix prices for any products. Any person who has done business knows that when there is a change in the price of your inputs, you need to sell whatever you have at the old prices to sell your stock before you go and buy at the new prices and then be able to sell at reduced prices to customers.
Consumers should not expect any immediate reduction in prices. Replacement costs of those products that are in the warehouses and markets are what the market will have to sell because the price at which they bought it must be fully recovered before they can go and buy at new prices.”
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Muda Yusuf faulted the FCCPC. He emphasised that raiding the marketplace to enforce prices fell outside the jurisdiction of the commission.
Yusuf said, “That is ridiculous. What kind of crude action is that? That is price control. It is not their business.”
Also speaking, a facilitator with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Ikenna Nwosu, said.
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