The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) has established a call centre to protect consumer rights. The call centre will also aid tracking of complaints and data collection as consumers are expected to call in and make complaints about products and services.

The centres will be managed by an Abuja-based IT solution provider, Interra networks.

Unveiling the centre yesterday in Abuja, the managing director of the council, Ifeyinwa Umenyi, said access to the centre, by over 140 million Nigerians, is just a dial away.

“Interra Networks is partnering to reach over 140 million consumers across the nation,” said Mrs. Umenyi.

‘Just a dial away’

“You can agree with us that there may not have any better move than this one made by CPC. All Nigerians now carry phones. So it is now easier to complain and get redress for your complaints. We are sure that in 2010, Nigerians will stop crying about not getting their complaints redressed. Now it is just a dial away.

“All Nigerians will no longer sit and complain about all the abuses that are all over the place. There so many adulterated products. Do not buy them, go home, sit down and lament, please do not lament again. It is just a matter of picking up your phone and dialing 0700callcpc or 07002255272.”

Mrs. Umenyi said the new portal is consumer-friendly because it has facilities for consumers to make complaints or give alert in English, Pidgin, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa languages. This is an addition to the existing hotlines.

“It is a lot easy to remember. It is not only for the educated, you can be attended to in all the three languages. Anybody can call. This is cheaper than mailing a complaint or entering taxi to nearest CPC office.”

Interra Network is also deploying E1 lines for the operation to avoid network congestion. E1 lines are believed to be the most efficient means of digital communications between the operators.

Consumer Information Response Centres

She also revealed that the council is establishing Consumer Information Response Centres across the 774 local government areas in Nigeria. This is being implemented in conjunction with the National Orientation Agency which is making some of its facilities and structures available for the initiative.

The project is aimed at providing consumer education services, redressing mechanism and collation of data on consumer complaints. This is in addition to the efforts by the council to expand its programmes to ensure that its impact is felt at the grass-root.

“For our impact to be felt by millions of abused Nigerians consumers, many of whom are in the grass-root, we identified the need for our spread, in terms of presence, across the country. To this end, the South-West Zonal Office, Oshogbo, was established this year to join the four zonal offices.”

The agency further disclosed that a total of 2,300 consumer complaints have been received this year. The Director General said about 85% of these complaints have been resolved. “Resolution of others is at advanced stage. The complaints were resolved through negotiation, mediation and conciliation meetings. In this vein, a total of 30 mediation meetings were held this year to resolve various complaints.”

‘They are in it for money’

A consumer, Christopher Sunday, said the initiative is a welcome idea and hopes it will be sustained.

Mr. Sunday noted that other agencies have made similar moves in the past, yielding no results. “Let me tell you, they are in this thing for money,” he said. “Forget what they are saying, the ones done by other organisations have yielded no results especially the call-in programmes on air. CPC should show that they are serious about this initiative this time around by making this particular one work. It is cheaper than going to their centres but let us hope that they will indeed be fast in resolving complaints from the consumers.”

 Written by Ngozi Sams

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China keen on Nigeria's oil reserves

Groups to dig deep for leases

Three of the world’s biggest oil companies are poised to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to hold on to prime concessions in Nigeria following keen Chinese interest in the planet’s 10th richest crude reserves.

ExxonMobil, the largest US oil group, is to pay a “signature bonus” of as much as $600m after securing a new 20-year lease to three blocks it has operated for four decades and which currently produce 580,000 barrels a day, people familiar with the situation said.

Royal Dutch Shell is close to finalising similar renewals that might see it surrender some concessions, industry insiders said, while Chevron, the second placed US group, is yet to agree a deal even after some of its leases expired at the end of last month.

The negotiations underscore the importance of Nigeria’s oil, both to western groups whose traditional dominance is weakening, and to the country’s government, which depends on petroleum revenues for 80 per cent of its income.

Militant attacks in the oil-producing Niger Delta, coupled with under-investment, have seen production fall well below capacity in recent years.

The leases expired a year ago but were extended for 12 months. Shell took out a court injunction to prevent any change of ownership before entering talks.

Few people expected big oil groups, which have been the mainstay of the industry through its 50-year history, to be ejected from blocks they operate as minority partners in joint ventures. But one person familiar with Exxon’s renewal talks said they were like “a cliff-hanger”, and concluded only days before the leases lapsed.

Cnooc, the Chinese state-owned oil company, in June sought to buy stakes in 23 blocks – including some of those up for renewal – in order to secure as many as one in six of Nigeria’s 36bn barrels of reserves.

Cnooc is willing to pay up to $50bn for the stakes, Nigerian officials said, but it may be granted far fewer than it is seeking.

Odein Ajumogobia, minister of state for oil, has said the government would be willing to sell part of its own holdings in the joint ventures to the Chinese.

Several people with knowledge of the renewal talks said the competition from China – which has signed several big energy deals in Africa to fuel its growth – had strengthened the government’s hand.

The Nigerian government hopes to use the money raised from the leases to plug part of a $10bn deficit in next year’s budget, a senior official said.

The companies declined to comment.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009.

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