FG to punish POS agents that increase tariff

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has said it will investigate and punish Point of Sale agents (POS agents) found guilty of inflating their tariffs. This announcement is coming after POS agents in Lagos, under the umbrella of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), threatened to increase their tariff.

As seen in a report, the Public Relations Officer for Lagos Chapter, Stephen Adeoye, has established that the association now has a new price lists in the state and the association plans to raise a task force that will enforce the change in no time. He added that the task force would head each district and work towards a common goal through the support from Lagos State Command, Police Force, and DPOs.

However, the FCCPC, in a statement released on Wednesday and signed by its Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Babatunde Irukera, observed that price fixing is illegal, distorts the market, hinders innovation and efficiency, and has a detrimental impact on consumers.

In his words “The Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Act (2018) recognizes and indeed encourages the prerogative of businesses to organize in and as trade associations for acceptable purposes, such as ensuring and enforcing applicable standards and best practices, as well as a measure of self-regulation within the profession or trade.

“However, the same FCCPA copiously and extensively limits the scope and extent of such collaboration, particularly to exclude coordination with respect to scope or supply of services and price of services.”

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What is the FCCPC saying about the POS agents?

In the statement released by the FCCPC recently, the commission stated that any arrangement, discussion or combination of undertakings, including AMMBAN, met, agreed, or determined to impose uniform and coordinated fees for services should be halted.

It added that it has imposed strict penalties for cartels or any similar coordinated or collusive conduct among competitors, even at union levels. It said it will dutifully show no exemption in enforcing the law and therefore advised AMMBAN to desist from any attempt to fix its prices.

The commission has launched an inquiry to see whether claims purportedly made against AMMBAN about tariff increase are real. If evidence reveals that these assertions are true, it will take appropriate regulatory action to address the conduct.

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