By Chibuike Nwabuko
ABUJA FCT – The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has decried price exploitation by some traders, vowing to prosecute offenders caught in the act.
The Vice Chairman of the FCCPC, Tunji Bello who gave the warning in Abuja on Thursday during a stakeholders’ meeting, revealed that a fruit blender called Ninja was displayed on the shelf of a supermarket in Texas United States at $89 (roughly N140,000), and the same product was displayed in a popular supermarket at Victoria Island in Lagos State for N944,999.
According to Bello, a well-known supermarket in Nigeria is artificially raising the prices of its imported goods by an astounding 500 percent.
He said, “We have observed, for instance, that the margin in the prices of imported goods is very disproportionate in many cases; and in the case of locally produced goods, excessively inflated.
“This is an untenable situation, particularly in the retail segment, where we have identified patterns of price fixing perpetrated by some market associations, price gouging, and other anti-consumer practices.
“For instance, our check just two days ago at a popular supermarket chain in Texas, United States, revealed that a fruit blender called Ninja is displayed on the shelf at $89 (roughly N140,000). Just two days ago.
“Meanwhile, the same product was displayed at a popular supermarket on Victoria Island in Lagos for N944,999 on the same day and at the same hour. This represents more than 500 percent inflation of the cost,”
“Interestingly, when our undercover officer visited the same supermarket two weeks earlier, this same blender was on display with the price tag of N750,000. The question then arises: what is the basis for this arbitrary hike in the price of the blender compared to the United States? What business principle can justify this level of profiteering?
“Perhaps, I should cite a few more of the unpleasant discoveries we made during our investigation. In some notable supermarkets surveyed discreetly in Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Lagos, we also found that prices were arbitrarily jacked up from time to time without any justifiable reason.
“In one particular big supermarket in Abuja, for instance, consumers were being charged N2,600 for an imported toilet soap at the payment point as the price tag was not displayed as earlier mandated by FCCPC. The same toilet soap was displayed for sale at N1,950 at a popular supermarket in Lekki, Lagos the same day. That already constitutes a double offense.”
