FCCPC: We received 3,000 complaints in one year — electricity topped list

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says no fewer than 3,000 consumer complaints were received in the last year.

Adamu Abdullahi, acting executive vice chairman (EVC) of the commission, spoke in an interview with NAN in Abuja on Sunday.

Abdullahi said electricity-related issues topped the consumer complaints list, followed by aviation and banking-related complaints.

According to the acting EVC, the number of complaints has been dropping due to some interventions by FCCPC and the MacArthur Foundation.

“The major complaints that we have received so far have to do with electricity followed by aviation, banking,” he said.

“We have this intervention because the sector regulator is not doing enough, so we have to come in.

“In electricity, the MacArthur Foundation came up with a grant to the commission and they said we should intervene in the electricity sector and do advocacy so that we can address the issue of complaints in that sector.

“We brought in the sector regulator, Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) and the distribution companies (Discos).

“We now started going round states to sit down with sector regulators, NEMSA and DisCos and people came and lodged their complaints in those days and complaints were resolved there and then.

“People were very happy because it had not been done before and once we had the breakthrough, it now became easier for them to continue that way.

“The complaints started dropping.”

On aviation, Abdullahi said FCCPC is working with all necessary stakeholders to ensure robust consumer protection.

He also listed the states where the intervention had been done including Bauchi, Edo, Jos, Ibadan, and Lagos.

Abdullahi said the commission was making plans to expand its reach by going to other areas to solve electricity complaints.