North East Zonal Office of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has engaged in fact-finding interactions with traders’ associations and marketers to ascertain factors responsible for the continuous hike in food prices.
The commission made this known in Bauchi yesterday after fact-finding interaction to gather information directly from the sources and stakeholders in major markets, particularly executives, market unions, sellers, and consumers.
Its acting executive chairman, Dr Adamu Abdullahi, represented by the zonal coordinator, Mr Dauda Waja Ahmad, said that the commission is poised to unlock the markets and address key consumer protection and competition issues affecting the prices of commodities in the food sector.
Abdullahi opined that the commission’s surveillance efforts suggest participants in the food chain and distribution sector including wholesalers and retailers are allegedly engaged in conspiracy, price gouging, hoarding, and other unfair tactics to restrict or distort competition in the market.
He said the defaulters also restrict the supply of food, manipulate and inflate the price of food indiscriminately, stressing that “These obnoxious, unscrupulous, exploitative practices are illegal under the FCCP Act.”
“Following this exercise, the commission would develop a concise report of its inquiry and make recommendations to the government following section 17(b) of the FCCPA and initiate broad based policies and review economic activities in Nigeria to identify and address anti-competitive, anti-consumer protection and restrictive practices to make markets more competitive while also ensuring fair pricing for consumers,” he said.
The team of the commission’s zonal office headed by the zonal coordinator, Dauda Waja Amadu in carrying out the exercise in Bauchi, went into the Muda Lawal Market with questionnaires in addition to its apparatus in the investigation mission to determine the soaring prices of commodities in the market.
Chairman of the Muda Lawal Market Traders Association, Bala Mai Kaji, noted that it is the responsibility of the commission to determine the basic needs of customers in the market, how they get them, and why the hike in prices of products.
