The Nigerian market is free and mostly unregulated. A market where prices of goods are not controlled or regulated by the government. Sellers and producers of consumers goods are allowed to peg their prices wherever tickles them and wherever satisfies their greedy urge, they are only forced to readjust the price by competitors or by other market factors and never by the Nigeria government, unlike other countries where the government mandates services providers and sellers on the price range they are to peg for a product or service.
The reason why price control is important in every consumer market is that human beings are naturally greedy and in a free market, especially a market where there is no competition or where there are high demands that surpass the supply, there will always be a strong urge to take advantage of consumers’ desperation and rip them off. Some desperate consumers can pay anything for a service or product out of desperation even when they know that they are being ripped off by the service providers.
In choice cities like Abuja, Lagos or Port Harcourt, landlords and house owners charge arbitrarily for rent on houses with the perception that if a particular tenant cannot afford to pay the rent, there are other tenants who are willing to pay whatever rent that is fixed on the house because of the high demand of houses in those cities.
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Transport companies as well do raise their fare arbitrarily, without any control or regulations. I learnt that Good is Good Motors just because they are the market leaders in terms of road transportation in Nigeria does charge passengers arbitrarily because they know that passengers are eager to desperately pay any fare for their transport services hence why they are taking advantage of desperate passengers. I was shocked to the bone when I was told that GIG Motors charges the whooping sum of N30,000 for a one-way ride from Lagos to Abuja, while other road transport companies charge within the range of N10,000- N15,000.
Well, we actually have in Nigeria a price control board, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry and we also have the federal consumer protection commission (FCPC). The primary statutory duties of these agencies are to protect consumers, make sure they are not being cheated or ripped off by producers and service providers and fix prices for some popular basic consumer goods.
The price control act of 2004 was specifically enacted to control and regulate how service providers fix the price of their goods and services and curtail the arbitrary charge fixed by market leaders. This act in its section 1 established the price control board to oversee these functions. This act as well established price control measures which is aimed at ensuring that Nigerians have access to basic services and products at affordable prices.
But it really does appear that these agencies have been sleeping on duty. Most Nigerians do not even know that there are government agencies that have been charged to control prices and are also charged to prosecute service providers who charge exorbitant prices. They need to be more proactive now than before because producers and service providers due to the economic hardship and high cost of raw materials are shifting all the burden; both tax and price burden to the final consumers.
You as a consumer also have a part to play. Once you feel that you are being ripped off by a service provider or by a seller, you should contact or report to the FCPC or the Price Control Board.