Ministry, CPC Move to Protect Consumers from Abuses

Barrister Adebayo Shittu, minister of Communications Technology, has said that his ministry and the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) need to collaborate to save Nigerians from consumer abuses in the telecom sector.

The minister made the call weekend when Mrs. Dupe Atoki, director general of the CPC, led her management team to pay a courtesy call on him in his office in Abuja.

A statement released yesterday by Abiodun Obimuyiwa, Council’s spokesperson, indicated that Mrs. Atoki paid the courtesy call to intimate the minister on the relevance of the ministry in activities lined up for the commemoration of the 2017 World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD).

Enumerating the challenges consumers in the digital age in Nigeria face, the CPC boss contended that everything has been digitalized “except for our breathing, because at the touch of a button, something just happens, so we cannot avoid being engulfed in the digital system.”

Responding, the minister said, “telecoms and ICT are the biggest influence on human lives, on businesses and even on government, I think that ICT, particularly telecoms is one area where we can possibly affect Nigerians perhaps more than any other”, noting that “as at today we have 150 million Nigerians who use telephones and that shows the only area with the largest users.”