On Thursday, the Federal Government began surprise inspections at various supermarkets and markets in the Federal Capital Territory to ensure compliance with price display and quantity rules, with the aim of reducing food costs nationwide.
The government also announced plans to carry out unannounced checks at supermarkets and open markets in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Ibadan in the next few weeks to investigate abnormal price increases and take strong action against any companies found to be involved in unfair market practices such as price manipulation, excessive pricing, or forming cartels.
Dr. Adamu Abdullahi, the Executive Secretary of The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, made this statement during an enforcement operation to stop grocery store price gouging and illegal pricing schemes.
In a several-hour-long operation, the FCCPC sealed 4U Supermarket and removed 33 bags of fake stallion and caprice rice infested with weevils from one of the branches of the same supermarket at 58 Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse II.
The commission had previously instructed its operatives to intensify monitoring of both formal and informal markets to identify businesses inflating prices unnecessarily, in order to take enforcement action.
This action is in direct response to consumer concerns about the rising cost of goods, which contradicts the recent strengthening of the naira.
Food inflation has been a recurring issue contributing to the steady rise in Nigeria’s headline inflation of 33.2 percent, with an unprecedented food inflation rate of 40 percent in March 2024.
This was worsened by the significant decline of the naira against the dollar in January and February, leading to soaring prices of essential goods and services, pushing living costs to an all-time high.
Despite the presidency's pledge to continue its campaign against racketeers and encouraging Nigerians to expect a stronger naira, a considerable drop in the prices of essential goods was not achieved.
Ajuri Ngelale, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, informed The PUNCH that the president had instructed consumer protection agencies to ensure that local prices correspond to the increasing value of the naira.
“However, 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 protection regulatory agencies must intensify enforcement to ensure that our people are not cheated by businesses that fail to reflect the prevailing exchange rates in their 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,” Ngelale stated.
The President's office also promised Nigerians that things will get better in the future and the advantages of the changes will become more obvious as the government continues.
The President's spokesperson said that when you combine the increasing purchasing power of Africa's largest population with the large amount of money available for consumer loans that will help the real economy, you'll understand why Nigerians will be happy that they chose a financial expert and entrepreneur as their president by the end of his first term, even though the signs of progress are already becoming more noticeable.
In response to the accusation, the FCCPC leader told PUNCH Online in an interview that the commission was very concerned and that the supermarket's practices were harmful to consumers despite the stronger naira and lower production costs.
He revealed that a supermarket, 4U, was selling rice from Stallion and Caprice, even though these companies stopped producing rice in August 2022.
It was also found that the prices of some products on the shelves were different from the prices at the checkout counter, and some products didn't have price tags at all.
Abdullahi further stated that appropriate penalties would be given to those responsible after investigations.
On February 16, FCCPC closed Sahad Stores, a supermarket in the Garki area of Abuja, for using deceptive pricing and lack of transparency in pricing.
He said, "This action is part of our efforts to ensure that prices in the market match what is displayed. Recently, we have found that there is a lot of deceit happening, especially in markets around the major cities in the country.
“You have seen what we have done earlier with other supermarkets and sealing them but despite these efforts, some supermarkets still engage in this practice. You go to a shelf, and the product displayed is different from what appears when you come to pay at the counter.
“That is not acceptable because you have frisking consumers, and some of the items don’t have price tags attached to them at all. So, you are at the mercy of whoever is operating the counter. You can input whatever price you want there, and that’s not acceptable.
“In addition, we found out another thing that baffles us. Nobody knows that stallion group which has been comatose for a very long time is still in the market. What’s happening is that some people bag their local rice in the pretence that it is the same stallion or kappa that people are used to that people are buying, which is wrong. You are still frisking consumers, you’re collecting from them what is not due because what you pretend to be selling is not what you’re selling and that is bad.
“Essentially, we are evacuating all the rice and they would come to explain to us how they got that rice and we would get to the root of it, we would take necessary sanctions as appropriate with the Act establishing FCCPC.”
A quick look at the 2018 Act (section 69) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection indicated that any person or company found guilty will pay a fine of N50m or 10 percent of its yearly income.
Section 69 states that if a person breaks the rules in this part, they have committed a crime and could be fined up to N50m. A corporate body that breaks these rules could be fined up to 10% of its turnover from the previous business year.
The head of the FCCPC revealed plans to introduce a price tracker to stop major supermarkets from overcharging Nigerian consumers.
He also mentioned that the Commission has finalized plans to inspect open markets, starting from the FCT on Friday, to control the unjustified price hikes by some traders through their Market Unions and Associations.
We can't simultaneously visit all supermarkets due to limited staff. We will start inspecting general markets from tomorrow, looking into the activities of market associations.
We do not allow cartels in our law and we will ensure that food and commodity prices decrease in the country. This is part of the effort to ensure that both formal and informal markets follow the rules. The dollar has decreased, so the prices of goods should also decrease.
The recent operation was in Abuja, but we have also carried out operations in Port-Harcourt and Lagos. This time, Kano is next. After that, we will go to Port-Harcourt, Lagos, Ibadan, and Kaduna, then other states.
A price tracker will be established with the Bank of Industry at the beginning of next week. This will allow us to monitor commodity prices across the country. If there is a price increase, we will investigate the reason and take action if it seems unjustified.
After the raid, the General Manager of the Supermarket, Yunusa Yusuf, who admitted responsibility for the fake foreign rice, promised to expose the suppliers in an interview with the press.
Yusuf pledged to comply with FCCPC regulations on consumer rights in the future to avoid similar incidents.
