Nigeria Content Online

The
federal government at the weekend expressed disgust over the attitude
of some financial operators to consumers, which include failure to
provide useful information on their new products.

Ify
Umenyi, director general, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), gave the
charge during a financial services stakeholders’ meeting marking the
2011 World Consumers’ Day in Abuja.

The
DG, described the recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive to
micro-finance banks to acquire information technology infrastructure
before the end of the year as a move which would further protect the
interest of consumers at the market place.

Speaking
further on consumer education, Mrs. Umenyi lamented that “this outright
neglect of corporate responsibility has caused untold harm to
consumers, who often fall prey to some unscrupulous fraudsters that
exploit their ignorance to defraud them.”

She
said that the council is not comfortable with the zero level of
consumer education on these new services, stressing that this obvious
lack information placed a lot of statutory burden on sector regulators.

The
meeting, which was attended by sectoral players and various agencies of
government in the financial sector, has as its theme, ‘Consumers for
Fair Financial Service’.

“Much
as we appreciate many innovations brought into the industry by
operators to make financial service attractive to consumers, we are of
the firm belief that it is the responsibility of the operators to fully
educate the consumers properly on the new services and how to maximise
the services.

“This
development underlines the need to adequate financial service literacy
and therefore, places a statutory burden on sector regulators such as
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Nigerian Deposit
Insurance Corporation (NDIC), and others to raise tighter policies and
ensure adequate enforcement to guarantee a safe and satisfactory
financial service,” Mrs. Umenyi said.

While
commending the CBN on the directive to microfinance bank on IT
infrastructure, the CPC boss noted that the establishment of the Card
Fraud Arbitration Committee by the apex bank to provide a card fraud
arbitration framework for speedy resolution of card fraud complaints,
was a step in the right direction as it would help to look into the
various anomalies relating to the use of Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

Mrs.
Umenyi also commended the efforts of Lamido Sanusi, the CBN governor,
over his policy which stipulates N50, 000 fines on banks and e-payment
companies that breach its guidelines on the operation of ATM.