Despite their promise to investigate his complaint and get back to him, Timi had not heard back from the Customer Care Unit of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) three weeks after he had sent them an email objecting to high bill estimates being sent to his two bed-room flat. Instead, AEDC disconnected his electricity, insisting that he must pay one hundred and sixty thousand naira or remain in the dark.
Tired of trying to reason with AEDC, Timi decided to approach the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC) to seek redress. He headed to Twitter and posted a comment on FCCPC’s timeline which incidentally had many other conversation threads featuring customers’ complaints of abuses by service providers in various sectors.
“Dear @FCCPCNigeria can you stop @Abujaelectricity form extorting me?” was all that his tweet said. And in about 4 hours, there had been 2 replies to Timi’s tweet: One from FCCPC, instructing AEDC to look into the complaint and asking Timi to send details of the matter to FCCPC’s email address. And another, from AEDC asking Timi to send a complaint email to their Customer Care unit so that the matter would be investigated.
In the days that followed, Timi had a series of email exchanges with the AEDC Customer Care unit which eventually acknowledged that he didn’t owe any bills, and sent technicians to reconnect his electricity. The matter has been forwarded to one of FCCPC’s case officers for investigation as Timi is seeking compensation for the inconvenience he and his family suffered.
Timi’s experience is not an isolated case. It is one of many where FCCPC’s oversight has prompted a service provider to step up their response to a customer’s complaint. The commission obviously takes its job of engaging, listening and acting on public expressions of dissatisfaction seriously. This is evident in its Twitter feed which is full of conversation threads that feature instructions by FCCPC to specific corporate entities to do right by customers. And these organisations cut across various kinds of service providers including banks, restaurants, online shops, GSM companies, among others.
In addition to timely interventions in disputes between companies and their customers, FCCPC is constantly urging service providers in all industries to enhance the quality of the systems through which aggrieved customers get redress. FCCPC Director-General, Babatunde Irukera has repeatedly urged companies to build sustainable systems for handling customer complaints as a strong first line response so that the commission will only intervene as a second level mechanism for complaint resolution.
It will come as no surprise that electricity distribution companies (DisCos) are among the most mentioned in complaints to FCCPC from customers seeking redress because of the infamous problems in the electricity sector. Meters are a big issue. A survey conducted in 2017 by NOI Polls revealed that ownership of fixed pre-paid metering was limited to only 9 percent of the population at the time this survey was conducted. According to the same National Survey, the rest of the population is divided among 41 percent who use post-paid meters and 50 percent who do not have any meter at all, but simply pay fixed amounts of money for electricity. Given these facts and the well documented greedy antics of some DisCo staff, service provision in the power sector is a highly contentious area.
The frustrations of Nigerians with the quality and frequency of power supply is amply reflected in FCCPC’s public engagements. While speaking at a town hall meeting with consumers, Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) and other stakeholders in September 2019, Irukera cautioned KEDCO against high bill estimates, popularly known as “crazy bills”. In response KEDCO’s Chief Customer Relations Officer, said the Distribution Company will act promptly on the complaints received from customers.
In another town hall meeting organised by the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, Irukera described estimated billing as an abuse. “We used to have estimated billing in Nigeria before the Discos came on board, and it was not as contentious and discriminating as we have it now”. Speaking on disconnections, Irukera maintained that there was no acceptable combination of facts that would justify the group disconnection of electricity consumers where there were some of the consumers that might have paid their bills.
In addition to protecting consumer interest, the FCCPC is charged with ensuring that Nigeria has a competitive and healthy market for the betterment of the economy. As such, the commission’s posture is firm but fair.
This was evident in its oversight of Africa’s largest pay TV operator, Multichoice. The commission has issued a final order to Multichoice in June 2019, after the company failed to comply with previous agreements reached with FCCPC. Among other things, FCCPC directed Multichoice to provide an option that would allow its subscribers suspend their active subscription. This is a significant intervention since Nigeria is said to be MultiChoice’s largest market accounting for over 40 percent of its subscribers.
FCCPC has introduced an email portal dedicated to receiving and addressing reports of sexual harassment of university students. FCCPC’s role here is to gather credible intelligence to assist school authorities and other stakeholders take decisive action regarding sexual harassment, exploitation and other misconduct.
While FCCPC does a good job of interfacing with various entities, it is also constantly working to educate customers and patrons of various services of their responsibilities and rights.
This is the kind of thinking that led to the introduction of the Patients’ Bill of Rights (PBoR). The PBoR is a guide for both care providers and patients and is meant to shape behaviour in the health sector. FCCPC is working to create similar products and systems in other sectors.
Said Irukera, “We are developing regulations, which will require goods and service providers in Nigeria to provide information to their consumers about how to resolve their complaints. For example, consumers who pick up any product should be able to find information on that product about addressing a complaint; advertisements about products and services should also carry that information.”
As a regulator with a very important mandate that involves so many moving parts, FCCPC has proven to be responsive and diligent in addressing issues under its purview. It is indeed a good thing that the commission prioritizes partnerships with relevant stakeholders so that they all embrace their share of the responsibility of protecting consumer rights and promoting fairness in the Nigerian market.
PAUL K. ADEGBOYEGA
Adegboyega is a policy analyst in Abuja
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