Edificio con Refuerzo 3

Consumer interest is also being promoted by public interest groups and NGOs. These consumer interest groups, however, are usually non-sector specific. Their activities are more noticeable in goods rather than in services. Of the over 120 consumer groups in Africa, only few are involved in telecoms issues. These are found in Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa, (Southwood, 2006). Non-statutory consumer agencies are active in many developed countries of the EU, USA and Australia complementing the activities of the statutory agencies like Ofcom, FCC and ACCA. In these developed countries, consumer bodies have the opportunity to actively participate and make significant input to policy issues. In the UK is found the best international practice in the collaboration of statutory consumer agencies with non – statutory consumer agencies to deliver excellent consumer protection. In Belgium, Austria and Denmark, some non – statutory consumer organisations are incorporated within the regulatory system and are active in market monitoring and other consumer related activities (Harker, Mathieu and Price, 2006:221).

Non-Statutory consumer bodies by virtue of their diverse structure and special areas of interest are well suited to pursue the interest of particular groups of consumers: the poor, the elderly, the geographically marginalised and other disadvantaged groups. Having no statutory mandate to challenge regulatory decisions they rely mainly on making representations and submissions at public forum and lobbying the regulators and legislators. They occasionally resort to legal action to protect the interest of aggrieved consumers by providing evidence of infringement, negotiating redress and generally being there for and on behalf of the consumers. For example, in Nigeria, two consumer bodies – Consumer Empowerment Organisation of Nigeria (CEON) and United Consumer Association of Nigeria (UCAN) in January 2014 resorted to legal action to obtain compensation for telecom consumers for poor quality of service. After the initial report of this move by these consumer bodies, nothing else has been reported on the progress or outcome of the litigations. There is no evidence of any other action in telecommunications by any other consumer body. Consumerism in Nigeria is discussed in chapter 3 of this study.

147 TABLE 8. MECHANISMS FOR CONSUMER REPRESENTATION:STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Pros Cons

In-house Consumer Bureau

-Easy access to reliable consumer information on the regulatory process that can be used to inform the representative function.

-Inability to challenge regulatory decisions due to lack of independence from the regulatory agency itself;

-Risk of capture by powerful interest groups.

Representative as Member of Regulatory Board

-Powerful channel of information for consumer groups (if there is no duty of confidentiality).

-Inadequacy of representation if representative is captured by special interest groups and/or they are not fully accountable to the consumer constituency;

-Conflicting interests within the regulatory body may result in stalemate of the regulatory process.

Consumer Panel/Advisory Committee -Provides independent and expert advice;

-Repeated interaction with regulator makes for deep understanding of complex sector issues;

-Possibility of sharing sensitive data with panel than external group;

-There may be difficulty recruiting non-remunerated panel, require secretarial resources;

-Inadequacy of representation if the advisory body is captured by the most influential consumer groups;

148 -Capacity to challenge regulatory decisions

due to the body’s independence from the regulatory agency itself.

-Panel may not be truly representative in its make-up of consumer population.

Non statutory Consumer Bodies

-Consumer bodies have developed and coherent policy stance;

-Often proactively engage regulator on issue important to them;

-Sometimes conduct their own research at no cost to regulator;

-They provide access to consumers and assist in market research.

-Consumer bodies may not have adequate policy resource and expertise;

-Require regulators support e.g. specialist staff and free resource such as seconded staff;

-Any data provided is likely to be skewed to bodies client base rather than consumer population as a whole;

-Inviting consumer groups to roundtables is resource intensive for such bodies.

Source: Adapted from Muzzini (2005:10) and Coppack, Jacson & Tallack (2014)

Consumerism in the EU, USA and Australia have a long history, unlike in Africa where most consumer bodies are relatively young, having been established in the 1980s. However, in the last couple of decades there has been a significant growth in the number of consumer associations in Africa. ITU reports that by 2000 there were 120 consumer groups in 45 out of 53 countries in Africa. Most of these consumer groups do not benefit from public funding and consequently are characterised by poor staffing (in numbers and expertise), inadequate resources and uncoordinated activities. They are further disadvantaged by not being taken into reckoning by their national regulatory agencies, neither are they consulted nor informed of the regulators’ decisions. This is because they are perceived not to have any significant level of expertise in any specific sector. Their voices are heard mainly in minor consumer complaints issues. It is only in five African countries – Senegal, Kenya, Botswana, South Africa and

149 Nigeria – that consumer bodies are involved in consultation on policy issues. Even in these countries, Southwood, (2006) remarks that it is not evident that their input has any impact on policy or regulation.

From the review of literature, it would appear that the various options for consumer representation that has been implemented in different countries in spite of their merits and shortcomings have achieved reasonable degree of success. The level of success achieved is largely influenced by the broader regulatory environment and socio-political characteristics of the country concerned for instance, the presence of an active and vibrant civil society and the level of transparency in the regulatory framework. In this regards, it has been suggested that greater benefits could be derived by adopting an inclusive framework for consumer representation by combining the statutory and non-statutory models, as in the UK, “while ensuring that the weaknesses of each of these forms of engagement do not distort the decision making process” (Coppack, Jacson & Tallack, 2014:15). This arrangement may be of great benefit to Nigeria and other developing countries with little history of civil society/advocacy groups.