Ghana: Thick-Skin Consumer Protection

By Jean Lukaz MIH, MTS

Where there is no consumer protection law, it does not really make a difference when you are living in the jungle. In such an evolutionary environment in nature’s farm, everyone develops a thick skin: from the elephant to the cockerel to the umbrella tree and even to the eagle.

In a dog-eat-dog world, consumers in the Third World and in some advanced countries are only protected by their own immune systems other than external Machiavellian forces that only militate against them in the end.

What is Consumer Protection in the absence of a backing law and self-motivated civil society organizations?

In Platonic and Machiavellian terms, having the appearance of Consumer Protection than the reality of its existence in the manifestation of laws and institutions and the apprehension thereof has become the present predicament of Ghana and Ghanaian consumers. Weak government institutions and the semblance of regulatory enforcement and their reality as lame ducks have become the enemies of both Consumer Protection and the rule of law.

Anyone used to mosquito bites is likely to be living in a developing country. In the same manner consumers that are exposed to most consumer problems are dwellers of developing countries, most likely to be citizens of a utopian Consumers’ Commonwealth for the Anglophones and anglophiles or a politically assimilated DOM-TOMs, for the Francophones, including francophiles.

Let us do some scuba diving by making a naïve observation of the naked perambulating ‘traditional madman’ in Ghana, who is discarded by psychiatry, that prowl the cities reclaiming the streets, excepting the environs of the heavily guarded ghost haunted Fortress Ghana that is ironically fully exposed on Google Earth considering that even Diplomatic Missions have been heavily smudged beyond detection and their coordinates undeclared.

Our traditional madman, like the moon, goes round and comes around in many forms: sometimes as a consumer, sometimes as a manufacturer, wholesaler, seller or service provider and at times as the government.

In retrospect, Consumer Protection has evolved in all forms in Ghana: sometimes in the form of political persecution or public scourging in the name of ‘Kalabule’ [consumer rip-off], or price control laws in a quasi-communist milit-o-cracy determined by Machiavellian ‘armed prophecy’.

Given this status quo, Ghanaian consumers have been anaesthetised by rhetoric, breakdown in the rule of law, deceptive appearances and empty pre-election promises ever unfulfilled.

The aforementioned traditional madman sleeps in the streets in rain or shine, fully exposed to the capricious elements and most importantly, to zillions mosquito bites yet he hardly contracts malaria. Is it because he has become immune to the bites of this minuscule vampire bearing leviathan parasites of political lies and unscrupulous business exploitation or is it because malaria is only a condition of the mind far from a disease?

Whether in limbo or out on a limb the Ghanaian consumer, it appears, has developed a thick skin. After all, regulatory enforcement institutions can be simulated as distinguished consorts of unscrupulous businesses. To put your faith in them ‘It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite:…’ [Isa 29:8 KJV].

To cry ‘Consumer Protection’ is all a vexation of the spirit and a chase after the wind, a Hobbesian attitude to life as a consumer in ‘the state of nature,’ in the absence of authority and the law:

“…think about how you behave: when going on a journey, you arm yourself, and try not to go alone; when going to sleep, you lock your doors; even inside your own house you lock your chests; and you do all this when you know that there are laws, and armed public officers of the law, to revenge any harms that are done to you. Ask yourself: what opinion do you have of your fellow subjects when you ride armed? Of your fellow citizens when you lock your doors? Of your children and servants when you lock your chests? In all this, don’t you accuse mankind as much by your actions as I do by my words? Actually, neither of us is criticizing man’s nature. The desires and other passions of men aren’t sinful in themselves. Nor are actions that come from those passions, until those who act know a law that forbids them; they can’t know this until laws are made; and they can’t be made until men agree on the person who is to make them. But why try to demonstrate to learned men something that is known even to dogs who bark at visitors—sometimes indeed only at strangers but in the night at everyone?” [Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, XIII, ‘The natural condition of mankind as concerning their happiness and misery’]

Is there such a thing as Consumer Rights in Ghana?

by Jean Lukaz MIH, MTS

Never had I felt so stupid as a consumer advocate than the day the theory of ‘consumer rights’ was challenged at a conference for the fact that it lacked any legal basis in international law and in international relations. It occurred to me that either the consumer movement had got it wrong all this while or someone was wielding a powerful drilling tool, thereby reducing the issue of consumer rights to a complete nonsense upon stilts.

The ‘consumer movement’ went to work immediately to debunk this argument by extracting from UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection, ILO provisions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, which are all not legally binding documents in international law.

The moment the latter, bearing both first- and second-generation rights, was being translated into legally binding obligations, it was split into two separate treaties in 1966 [ratified in 1976] reflecting political and economic rights into the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The first of the treaties, being political in nature, consists merely of first-generation rights that did not require any resources to be provided for consumers to be able to enjoy them. The second treaty, second-generation in nature, bore less developed enforcement mechanisms for rights that cannot be guaranteed. These economic and social rights (second-generation rights) seemed to be blurring off in the business argument until the consumer movement attached governments as constituents of the Social Responsibility Standard, ISO 22000.

These second-generation rights rather require the allocation or redistribution of resources and very often are not enshrined in state constitutions for fear of opening the floodgates to consumers. Only Communist Manifestos and Communist Constitutions go that far in enshrining social and economic rights. So what happened?

The ISO Standard on Social responsibility (ISO 22000) was opening the floodgates for businesses to return to their thrones of ‘Caveat Emptor’. Strictly speaking, industry was invoking an old theoretical argument on the derivation of rights that suppose that the only proper use of the word ‘rights’ must be in relation to legal rights. In a like manner, they were asking Paul, the Apostle, to turn in his grave and rephrase some of his to ‘O consumer, where is thy sting?’
Burying my head into the question of rights led me to the issues of sovereignty, liberties, privileges, immunities and the ‘non-existent Constitutional Rights’ of consumers, a.k.a. consumer sovereignty.

• What is a consumer right if it does not impose duty on others and thereby making it less protected than it should be?
• What is a consumer right if it does not create liability in others?
• What is a consumer right if it does not grant immunity to consumers from being deprived of the essentials of life and tools of their trade upon which their very survival depend?
• What is a consumer right if it is all about liberties that are restricted by other right holders?
• What is a consumer right if the sovereignty of consumers is surrendered by their adhesion contract of citizenship that only guarantees them civil liberties as designed at will by the state at any point in time?
• What is a consumer right if none is wrong when they interfere with or restrict the exercise of it thereof?
• What is a consumer right if its application to the individual is restrained by advancing utilitarian arguments such as promoting the welfare of the majority?
• What is a consumer right if it is not a political, socio-economic or collective right?
• What is a consumer right if has no associated responsibility in the exercise of it thereof?

Unsafe in Any Currency

By Jean Lukaz MIH

Access to financial services is now considered a basic consumer right but the evils of banking and insurance and the vulnerability of poor consumers have grown beyond borders and continents. In Ghana, where over 80 percent of Ghanaians are financially illiterate, and this amazingly includes highly-educated folks, the financial services sector has been swarmed by predatory lending practices from those businesses pretending to be commercial, to the micro-finance and -insurance service specialists, to the non-commercial quasi-NGO (QUANGOs) social missionaries, to the grey area of new innovative mobile phone banking twists. Consumer naivety in financial services has even become a common financial joke in Ghana where consumers are said to always confuse ‘shares’ with ‘shirts’. The Financial Services sector in Ghana and in Africa seem to be loosely regulated by governments and businesses are just paying lip service to voluntary codes outlined by forums such as the Partnership for Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A) and the UN Blue Book on Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development that have inherent measures to curtail proliferating cross-border shylocks.

On March 15, World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) 2010, The Consumer Partnership in collaboration with the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) jointly organized a seminar on the Consumers International global theme ‘Our Money, Our Rights’, where a number of financial consumer protection initiatives by SPEED Ghana and the Ghana Microfinance Institute Network (GHAMFIN) targeted at the illiterate and poor consumers were also discussed. This had been an important step in targeting the non-English speaking population as financial literacy educational road shows and drama were conducted in local languages.

The best consumer protection is self-protection and consumers require consumer education to protect themselves in the market place. There is the need for consumer education on financial services to focus on financial capability, responsible finance, consumer protection, and the conduct of business regulation in Ghana. However, most consumer education efforts by government agencies are ineffective because they are in English only and targeted at the literate population who read one or two major newspapers. This leaves about half the population uninformed and uneducated. Consumer Protection Advocacy must thus border on the need for access to stable, secure and fair financial services, which is important for consumers everywhere, not least in the context of the global financial crisis. Government policy makers have a duty to increase consumer information ( ‘truth in lending’ for example), invest in financial literacy initiatives (i.e., consumer education), insist that the retail financial industry take steps to protect consumers (self-regulatory codes of conduct, for example) and encourage the development of an independent regulatory oversight body responsible for monitoring, reviewing and taking complaints. In order to protect consumers, the Government must ensure that consumers have regular reliable information on what services financial institutions offer at which price and what the risk involved is, so that consumers can make well-informed choices.

In a move to protecting Ghanaian consumers in Financial Services, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has established a new Investigation and Consumer Reporting Office (ICRO) within the Banking Supervision Department (BSD) as the financial industry watchdog office of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), with responsibility for protecting consumers of financial products and services and educating them on their rights and responsibilities. While this effort is laudable, the government must be moving more towards state sponsorship of regulation instead of state provision since this prevents duplication of mandates as is the case of this new ICRO within the Bank of Ghana that is working with the same mission, laws and regulatory authority in all matters relating to banking and non-banking financial business, that is

• Bank of Ghana Act 2002, Act 612
• Banking Act, 2004 (Act 673)
• Financial Institutions (Non-Bank) Law 1993, PNDC Law 328
• Companies Code Act 179, 1963
• Bank of Ghana Notices /Directives / Circulars / Regulations

Ghana must emulate the example of the US in moving for a new regulatory authority specifically dedicated to the protection of consumers of financial services in the form of the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) that was eventually based on the recognition of the vulnerability of consumers to financial services that are ‘Unsafe at any Rate’ as concluded by Elizabeth Warren in her treatise in a 2007 article in Democracy Journal:
‘It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance an existing home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting the family out on the street... Similarly, it’s impossible to change the price on a toaster once it has been purchased. But long after the papers have been signed, it is possible to triple the price of the credit used to finance the purchase of that appliance ... The difference between the two markets is regulation’.

The ineffectiveness of the regulatory role of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in the financial services sector has been exposed since 2004 when it directed all commercial banks in the country, to abolish and in some instances reduce, what it described as unfair bank charges and fees being charged by the various commercial banks operating in the country. The directive, which employed moral suasion as a regulatory tool, only provided a carte blanche for the commercial banks to further exploit poor Ghanaian consumers through extremely high and unfair interest rates.

The banking population of Ghana is about 20% and many Ghanaian households do not save with the banks because of the low interest on savings resulting in a gap that has gained Ghana the status of the country with the highest lending rate in sub-Saharan Africa.

With Ghana's interest rate currently ranging between 23.5% and 41.6% compared with an average estimated rate of 14% for sub-Saharan African countries and 3.34% for Asia's emerging economies, the present business environment promotes a let the borrower beware [‘caveat emptor’] approach to banking and financial services, which the UN Bluebook on Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development (2006) considers as a minimalist option that is purely ‘anti-consumer’. This attitude exploits uninformed and uneducated financial consumers and leaves very little responsibility to the lenders. There is the need for an enforced shift from letting borrowers beware to letting the lenders beware, a ‘caveat venditor’ approach as a first step.

Since the beginning of 2010, it seems that most of the global agencies such as Consumers International (CI), World Bank and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Consumer Policy Committee (COPOLCO) have gained a new consciousness on the exposure of African and third world consumers in general to the vicissitudes of the financial sector. CI used financial services as the theme of WCRD 2010 to raise awareness of the issue that cuts across borders not only in Africa but also in Europe and the US as the crises has shown. The World Bank Group is developing a Global Program on Consumer Protection and Financial Literacy to address these questions and help consumers help themselves, using a successful program piloted in Europe and Central Asia, the Global Program will be available to developing countries worldwide. And ISO-COPOLCO has initiated a process to gather information on consumer protection issues related to the provision of financial services, and the growth of new technologies and business models that have evolved in response to consumers' needs in financial services such as ethical practices in the provision of financial information and disclosure, best practices regarding the provision of financial services, appropriate design of information for targeted consumer financial products, questionable business practices (e.g. aggressive marketing practices, unfair contract terms) and liability issues, as well as mechanisms of enforcement and redress.

The global consumer, it appears, is not fully protected and is unsafe in any currency given the present practices in the financial services sector.
Contact:

Jean Lukaz
Executive Director
The Consumer Partnership-Ghana [The COP]
Jytlukaz-AT-gmail.com

http://www.ghanaconsumerwatch.wordpress.com
http://www.ghanaconsumerwatch.blogspot.com
http://www.theconsumerpartnership.wordpress.com

Towards A Rights-Based Consumer Protection Law for Ghana

By Jean Lukaz MIH

Ghana, while still embarking on the necessary steps towards a new consumer protection law, cannot presently boast of consumer protection legislation but rather a number of legislations that deal with consumer protection issues. The lack of a comprehensive consumer protection law is often to be blamed on defective national trade policies that have evolved over the years.

According to the Ministry of Trade, the Ghana Trade Policy approved by Cabinet in 2004 is set within the context of Ghana’s long-term strategic goal of achieving middle-income status and becoming a leading agro-industrial country in Africa. It was designed to provide the Ministry with clear guidelines for implementing Government’s domestic and international trade agenda as well as ensure a consistent and stable policy environment within which the private sector can operate with certainty. To ensure that these policy objectives are met through the structured implementation of policy prescriptions, a detailed implementation blueprint – the Trade Sector Support Programme (TSSP) - was developed and launched in February 2005. It details out specific activities in 10 thematic areas (which together contain 27 sub-projects) to be undertaken annually for the achievement of the policy prescriptions contained in the Ghana Trade Policy.
The fundamental principle underlying the Trade Policy Is that the private sector is the engine of growth, with Government providing a trade enabling environment to actively stimulate private sector initiatives. This is to be achieved through the full spectrum of trade policy instruments across the ten (10) thematic areas that have been the basis of the Ghana Trade Policy objectives.

The new Ghana consumer protection law is to be based on the Consumer Protection Policy as captured in the Ghana Trade Policy with the sub-themes of Consumer Protection, Health and Safety of Consumers, Economic Interests of Consumers, Access to Adequate Information, Consumption and the Environment, Consumer Representation, Competition Policy and Government Procurement. Short of a single fundamental objective, the new consumer law must ensure a fair and transparent market place in which the rights of consumers are recognized and protected. Protecting consumers’ economic interests is as important as regulation to ensure that the goods and services are available at a reasonable price and are safe.

Ghana being a Third World country, the problems of consumers are more related to the provision of essential services such as drinking water, sanitation, education and health care, than the market-related ones. The new consumer protection law must give special attention to the basic needs of disadvantaged consumers, in both rural and urban areas, including low-income consumers, and those with very low levels of literacy. It must clearly spell out the rights of consumers and the responsibilities of suppliers of goods or services and regulate all aspects of the purchasing cycle for goods and services, from the advertising or marketing of products, the sale of goods, full disclosure of product or service information to consumers, the terms and conditions of contracts and after-sales services including the respect of guarantees and warranties, refund and return policies. The Ghana Consumer Protection Law must integrate the universally accepted consumer rights into law by referring, implicitly or explicitly, to eight specific consumer rights, namely:

1. The Right to Basic needs
2. The Right to Safety
3. The Right to Information
4. The Right to Choice
5. The Right to Representation
6. The Right to Redress
7. The Right to Consumer Education
8. The Right to Healthy Environment

As constitutions of countries have evolved to reflect a citizens’ rights-based approach, so are consumer protection laws. The Consumer Protection Law for Ghana must move beyond mere consolidation of scattered sectoral laws and regulations to crystallizing and reforming consumer rights as enshrined in the various laws of Ghana as well as fair trading regulations.

This will ensure an easily-accessible, consumer-friendly, cross-cutting, rights-based approach to the development of a single, comprehensive legal framework for consumer protection. As the review of existing laws is inevitable considering that there are a number of obsolete consumer protection provisions that need to reflect modern consumer economics It should not be a mere major review of commercial and fair trade laws but must make provision for the drafting of new ones. It must cover much ground to the extent of providing for future innovative business fraud schemes and unfair trade practices.

Many developing countries on the various continents such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Botswana, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa have moved towards a comprehensive rights-based approach to their development of legislation for consumer protection that was guided by the UN Guidelines for consumer protection under the themes of Physical Safety, Economic Interests, Standards, Essential Goods and Services, Redress, Education and Information, and Health.
Beyond the establishment of a Consumer Protection Authority and Small Claims Courts, the Ghana Consumer Protection Law must move for the creation of the necessary institutions to take care of general consumer rights, product quality and safety and the specialized area of financial services that will all strengthen the Consumer Protection Regime such as a Consumer Product Safety Commission and a Consumer Financial Protection Commission.

As consumer groups in Ghana are moving for the new consumer protection law, which they believe will protect Ghanaian consumers, the Consumer Partnership is of the opinion that given the present environment of lack of legal enforcement compounded by a lacunae of resources, a new act of law is no guarantee of better consumer protection although it could be a first step in the process. The Consumer Partnership also believes that some of the voluntary standards developed by the Ghana Standards Board, such as the Advertising Code must be passed into law making reference to it as a Legislative Instrument (LI).

Consumer Protection is not a one-way street and requires consumers to act responsibly as no quantum of protection can secure irresponsible consumers. Consumer Protection is a process that involves consumers, service providers, producers and the government in a blend of roles and responsibilities. Thus, a working definition of Consumer Protection proposed by the Consumer Partnership given this background should include

‘the responsible ethical behaviour of consumers, producers or service providers in the respective buying and selling of products or services and the effective control of the marketplace by the government through the enforcement of laws and regulations, the promotion of standards and the dissemination consumer education.’

This presupposes that for consumer protection to exist, prevail, and be effective, the following conditions must be satisfied:
1. Consumers must be aware of their rights and responsibilities
2. Consumers must be responsible in the exercise of their rights
3. Consumers must be aware of the ethical consequences of their consumption
4. Producers and Service Providers must be responsible for the consequences of selling shoddy goods and services
5. Producers and Service Providers must be ethical in the conduct of their business
6. Government must regulate the marketplace through policy, laws and regulations
7. Government must exercise its responsibility of promoting standards, Consumer Education and Consumer Protection through an Ombudsman and other supporting agencies.

Of critical importance is the essence of Consumer and Business Education as a government responsibility even with the enactment of a new consumer protection law. Consumers need consumer education to build their capacity to act as rational and responsible consumers in the market place; Businesspersons need consumer education to build their capacity to become ethical businesspersons, to serve consumer interest, satisfaction and well‐being for a profit, rather than to profiteer from them; and Manufacturers need consumer education to build their capacity to become ethical manufacturers to serve consumer interest, satisfaction and well‐being, also for a profit and not mislead consumers to profiteer from them.

The actions of educated consumers and responsible businesses are often highly effective in minimising the harm caused by shoddy services and unsafe products. More importantly, they do so in a way that poses the least obstacles to business activity and to the ability of consumers to choose the goods and services that they prefer.
Responsible businesses go to considerable lengths to ensure that the products which they market are safe for consumers and that consumers are provided with sufficient information to use products safely. Many Ghanaian consumers take for granted that they need to educate themselves about the safety characteristics of the products which they purchase.

In their own bid to protect themselves, Ghanaian consumers need a set of tools to equip themselves with knowledge for their own safety. These tools of self-protection include protecting and optimizing their limited resources, avoiding product misuse, seeking information on products before buying them, using their buying power intelligently by patronizing quality goods and services while boycotting fake ones.

Consumer advocates in Ghana have often made the mistake of thinking that knowledge of consumer rights and the enactment of consumer protection laws will provide a safe haven for Ghanaian consumers. In every country in the world, even in the absence of a consolidated Consumer Protection Law, various statutes in the various sectors of the economy already contain provisions that are meant to protect the interests of consumers and it is the lack of legal enforcement that has been the bane of the system. Some of these laws and regulations are the mandates of various regulatory agencies in the country that are responsible for their enforcement and there are consumer protection provisions in all of them. Prioritizing consumer protection within their mandate has been the growing concern of Ghanaian consumers as they find very little being done in this area. Most Ghanaian consumers question in whose interest some of these government regulatory agencies are working as they believe that these government agencies are more protective of businesses within their jurisdiction than protecting consumers. This is buttressed by the fact that government regulatory agencies have not got sub-offices in the central business districts and other major markets where most consumer problems persist and are more prominent than their present head offices that are unreachable to most Ghanaian consumers.

Even in those countries where there is an enacted Consumer Protection Law, consumers cannot profess to know its content in totality. However, just like knowing there is a Police Force that looks out for the violation of criminal laws that we may not even be aware of, citizens still have the responsibility of protecting themselves from crime by learning to lock up their property, keeping their homes insured, staying away from infringing on other people’s freedoms and learning which of their own actions constitute civil wrongs and criminal violations, etc.

Even with the presence of consumer protection organizations, consumers, thus, have a responsibility of learning to read labels of products to check the ingredients, date of expiry, etc since no organization or law will do so for them at the point of purchase. Similarly, consumers are to read and understand contracts there are given to sign before appending their signatures.

For more information, contact:
The Consumer Partnership-Ghana [The COP]
KDPM 28
Kanda-Accra

Email: jytlukaz-AT-gmail.com, theconsumerpartnership-AT-gmail.com

http://www.ghanaconsumerwatch.wordpress.com
http://www.ghanaconsumerwatch.blogspot.com
http://www.theconsumerpartnership.wordpress.com

Is Consumer Protection Obama’s New Public Diplomacy Tool?

by Jean Lukaz MIH

Soft as silence, Obama’s Consumer Protection Advocacy has ridden on the waves of the global economic recession and landed on the African Continent, for the past two years, through the Office of International Affairs of the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The African Consumer Protection Dialogue is gaining ground and bringing in its trail big players such as Consumers International (CI) and the World Bank.

This has been part of the FTC’s second year of consumer education outreach to the African continent in its commitment to working towards consumer protection in a global competitive marketplace that knows few boundaries. In a bid to sensitizing consumer protection enforcement agencies in African countries on the need for closer co-operation and a common framework to tackle cross-border fraudulent and deceptive commercial practices, the FTC seems to be laying the groundwork for enhanced international co-operation on a larger number of consumer protection issues in Africa.

As most of existing national laws and enforcement systems designed to address fraudulent and deceptive commercial practices against consumers were developed at a time when such practices were predominantly domestic, and such laws and systems are therefore not always adequate to address the emerging problem of cross-border fraudulent and deceptive commercial practices, the Office of International Affairs of the FTC is working with competition and consumer protection agencies in Africa to promote cooperation and convergence toward best practices and is also actively assisting developing countries in their transition to market-based economies and their development of competition and consumer protection agencies. The FTC also aims at helping current regulatory environment for consumer protection to be consolidated from the fractured array of national agencies and regulatory authorities from the example of the recent move of the US in the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CPFA).

After haggling with African governments with the attendance of Consumers International (CI), the global consumer lobby, the FTC is now globe-trotting from one African country to another gathering consumer protection groups and government regulatory agencies alike in a consultative technical assistance that seeks to persuade African governments adapt the successes of the FTC institutional and legal framework to the African setting.
It appears that the promotion of consumer protection has finally become one of the tools of Obama’s public diplomacy efforts. With the increasing penetration and influence of the Chinese in Africa, it seems that the only way the root out the Asian menace is to cripple the shoddy products that used to be the hallmark of the rogue trade of the awakening giant through co-operation.

In the light of present developments some Africans are quite strongly behind China with her easily accessible credit and technology transfer with softer ties. Quoting Makwaia wa Kuhenga, [The Citizen, Tanzania]: ‘The propaganda against China most often than not is as if China is poised to grab vast swathes of land in Africa to meet this Asian country’s “hunger” for raw materials and energy! But the real worry of those projecting China in this manner with the intent to scare African countries is that the owners of these multinational media agencies are wary that Africa may diversify its trade relations in favour of China, thus ditching Africa’s former colonial powers.’

Third World consumers as well as poor consumers in advanced countries have always been at the vulnerable end of rogue trade as a pitiful result of trade liberalization. Poverty has turned out to be the very nemesis of poor consumers faced with a libidinal bargain hunt for the cheapest offers and multiple choices between various degrees of both locally produced and imported shoddy and hazardous products. In the absence of affordable options and the right to affordable choice, poor consumers only exercise their will and purchasing power in an act of faith with the ‘audacity of hope’ that by chance they shall get value for their money. ‘But compared to the former colonial powers in Africa who seem to sustain an exploitative relationship in Africa via subtle means, it would appear the Chinese want to hand Africa - not free fish already cooked on the table - but hand us fishing nets to go and fish ourselves in the sea; true to their ancient adage and tradition. What are we ready to accept: fishing nets or mosquito nets?’, says Makwaia wa Kuhenga.
On a balance, the stance of the US in relation to China is highlighted be Nye as he says ‘If America treats China as an enemy today, it will ensure future enmity. While we cannot be sure how China will evolve, it makes no sense to foreclose the prospect of a better future. America’s current policy combines economic integration with a hedge against future uncertainty… But, while such hedging is natural in world politics, modesty is important for both sides. If the overall climate is one of distrust, what looks like a hedge to one side can look like a threat to the other’. International relations in the 21st century is no longer exclusive, and there is neither a cold war expectation that countries align to a dominant power as it used to be. Or maybe Africa is presently riding the Non-Alignment Trade Bandwagon and cannot be bothered by hidden agendas as long as the continent gets the support she needs, irrespective of the source?

Obama’s Long Arm of Consumer Protection Reaches out to Ghana

By Jean Lukaz MIH

A delegation from the Council for International Consumer Protection of the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) met with the Consumer lobby in Accra-Ghana under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Wednesday to deliberate on ways of leveraging the institutional strength of the FTC in establishing enforcement mechanisms to protect Ghanaian consumers.

This was part of the FTC’s second year of consumer education outreach to the African continent in their commitment to working towards consumer protection in a global competitive marketplace that knows few boundaries.

In a workshop themed ‘Empowering Consumers through Education’, the FTC delegates Deon Woods Bell and Shaundra L. Watson delivered presentations with Ghanaian counterparts on key topics that included common consumer protection challenges in the legal frameworks of both Ghana and the US, financial practices, internet fraud, consumer education tools, and dispute resolution and redress mechanisms.

According to Ms Bell, the principal, but not the only, consumer protection agency at the federal level is the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC works alone, but in concert with other federal agencies, to administer a wide variety of consumer protection laws. The overall goal is to afford consumers a deception-free marketplace and provide the highest-quality products at competitive prices.

Representatives of consumer protection organizations such as the Consumer Partnership (The COP) was in attendance and offered useful suggestions on how to adopt and implement the lessons learned from the FTC cases and consolidate the Consumer Protection Bill in terms of content and the institutional setup of the proposed Consumer Protection Authority (CPA) that will function as a parallel of the FTC. Other consumer NGOs present were Consumers Association of Ghana, Consumer Protection Agency and Consumer Services Association.

Discussing the legal authority of the FTC, Ms Watson indicated that the organisation has enforcement and administrative abilities and has two main goals of protecting consumers by preventing fraud, deception, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and of maintaining competition by preventing anticompetitive business practices. She added that under the FTC Act, the FTC can make victimized consumers whole through restitution and punish wrongdoers through disgorgement of ill-gotten gains. The FTC seeks these remedies when it can objectively determine a clear violation of a law and reasonably calculate the damages payment. The FTC does not have the power to bring criminal charges. Any such federal cases in the consumer protection area would be brought in federal courts by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Office of International Affairs of the FTC works with competition and consumer protection agencies around the world to promote cooperation and convergence toward best practices and also actively assists developing countries in their transition to market-based economies and their development of competition and consumer protection agencies.

Updating the audience on the status of the Consumer Protection Policy and the long-awaited Consumer Protection Bill, Mr. Ben Peasah, a Director at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, intimated that the Policy is before Cabinet pending approval after which the next steps towards a consultative development of the Bill can commence.

Participants were drawn from various Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) such as Bank of Ghana, Ghana Police Service, Customs Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS), Ghana Law Reform Commission, Judicial Service, Ghana Standards Board (GSB) and Food and Drugs Board (FDB) among others.

Ghana Celebrates World Consumer Rights Day 2010

Consumer Protection is Government’s Duty!

Government has been urged to meet its obligations in the area of consumer protection both as a constitutional mandate and as required by UN guidelines on consumer protection for governments around the world. This statement was made by Jean Lukaz, Executive Director of the Consumer Partnership-Ghana and ISO Expert Trainer on Consumer Participation in Standardization, during a seminar held to mark World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) 2010, which was hosted by the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) as part of its efforts at supporting consumer protection activities.

‘Ghanaian consumers must make a conscious effort at changing the culture of silence to adopt a culture of complaints’, he said. This enables businesses, government regulatory agencies and consumer protection organizations to respond effectively to rid out shoddy goods and services and thereby protect their rights, he added.

In his presentation, Mr Lukaz highlighted the fact that not only must consumers exercise their rights but also they should be aware of their responsibilities and the impact of their behaviour on business and government. He added that responsibilities always precede rights and that if Ghanaian consumers want their rights recognised, they must first exercise their responsibilities.

In an attempt to define consumer protection, he said Consumer Protection, thus, can be defined as:

‘the responsible ethical behaviour of consumers, producers or service providers in the respective buying and selling of goods or services and the effective control of the marketplace by the government through the enforcement of laws and regulations, the promotion of standards and the dissemination of consumer education.’ (The Consumer Partnership, 2009)

The best consumer protection is self-protection and consumers require consumer education to protect themselves in the market place. However, most consumer education efforts by governmernt agencies are ineffective because they are in English only and targeted at the literate population who read some key newspapers. This leaves about half the population uninformed and uneducated, he concluded.

Speaking on the theme for this year’s WCRD 2010 ‘Our money, Our rights’ as proposed by Consumers International, Mr Lukaz made reference to the fact that 80 percent of Ghanaians are financially illiterate and this amazingly includes educated folk. He urged that the Financial Services sector must adhere to codes outlined by the Partnership for Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A) and the UN Blue Book on Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development.

Jean Lukaz criticised the Consumer Movement in Ghana for not being established at grassroot level which has resulted in low levels of impatience and ‘demo-crazyness’. There seems to be more on advocacy than activism but cautioned that the Consumer Movement must desist from statements and activities that will create the perception that it is ‘anti-business’.

Also present were Consumer Protection Agency CEO, Mr Kofi Kapito, who led a discussion on the Ghanaian and quality consciousness and Mr Ken Appenteng of SPEED, who delivered a presentation on financial literacy in Ghana. Representatives from Consumer Focus, Lecturers and students from the University of Ghana Health Science Department were in attendance as well as members of the Public.

The Ghana Standards Board has been supporting consumer protection in Ghana as part of their international mandate from membership to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) by encouraging consumer participation in standardization through the nomination of Consumer Representatives unto various Technical Committees and the participation of Consumer Organizations in ISO/COPOLCO (Consumer Policy Committee) activities. According to Mrs Adetola, Director of Standards, Jean Lukaz, a consumer representative on a Technical Committee, has been nominated to represent Ghana at the next ISO/COPOLCO Global Workshop on Social Responsibility in Copenhagen, Denmark from 15-21 May 2010.

Mrs Diana Amponsah further explained the activies of COPOLCO and how consumers participate in their activities in a presentation.

The Consumer Partnership-Ghana is advocating for access to stable, secure and fair financial services, which is important for consumers everywhere, not least in the context of the global financial crisis. Government policy makers have a duty to increase consumer information ( ‘truth in lending’ for example), invest in financial literacy initiatives (i.e., consumer education), insist that the retail financial industry take steps to protect consumers (self-regulatory codes of conduct, for example) and encourage the development of an independent regulatory oversight body responsible for monitoring, reviewing and taking complaints.

In a move to protecting Ghanaian consumers in Financial Services, the Bank of Ghana has established a new Investigation and Consumer Reporting Office (ICRO) within the Banking Supervision Department (BSD) as the financial industry watchdog office of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), with responsibility for protecting consumers of financial products/services and educating them on their rights and responsibilities. While this effort is laudable, the Consumer Partnership believes that government should be moving more towards state sponsorship of regulation instead of state provision since this prevents duplication of mandates as is the case of this new ICRO within the Bank of Ghana that is working with the same mission, laws and regulations.

Ghana to host conference on consumer protection in Africa

Ghana is to host an international conference on consumer protection in Africa, coming September 8-9, 2009 in Accra.

More than 250 policy makers, regulators, journalists and representatives from financial institutions and their apex organizations, the education sector, consumer protection agencies, and development partners from over 30 countries will participate in the conference.

The conference would be hosted in collaboration with the Partnership for Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A) on the theme “Promoting Financial Capability and Consumer Protection – A step forward towards financial inclusion in Africa.”

A statement from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning issued in Accra on Thursday, quoted Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning saying "Promoting financial capability is about raising awareness, promoting knowledge, building trust, and changing behaviour.”

“And it is not limited to educating consumers and enabling them to take informed decisions on savings, loan and investment products”, he added.

According to him, management and staff of financial institutions need to be trained to become more responsive to the needs of their clients, and supervisors need the capacity to protect consumers against fraud and other bad business practices.

The conference is being organized against the background that low-income households in Africa often have limited access to demand-oriented and affordable financial services.

They include savings, loans, and insurance, which means they have to revert to more expensive and less secure traditional alternatives of saving and borrowing and remain vulnerable to adverse shocks.

Research has shown that in order to strengthen financial institutions in Africa, there is the need to promote financial capability, to empower people to be capable of managing their financial assets and liabilities and to better understand their rights and responsibilities vis-à-vis financial institutions.

However, strengthening the financial capability of the population is not sufficient since governments also have a role to play in protecting consumers by ensuring that financial institutions apply recognized standards and suitable codes of conducts.

In order to create sustainable ‘win-win situations’ in this long-run, it is believed that financial capability measures need to go hand in hand with responsible, transparent and reliable services provided by financial institutions.

In moderated regional and national working groups, participants will have the chance to develop ideas and proposals as to what they think should be done in their country or region to improve financial capability.

A panel on social marketing will show films and discuss which marketing channels can be used best to address the different target groups of financial capability campaigns.

The Government of Ghana, together with the Ghana Microfinance Institutions Network (GHAMFIN), will hold as a prelude to the conference, a day’s Pre-Conference on “Promoting Financial Capability and Consumer Protection in Ghana” on September 7, 2009.

According to Mr Seth Terkper, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, “Financial capability is very high on the political agenda of the Government.”

He said “Ghana is one of the first countries in Africa that have developed and started to implement a National Strategy for Financial Literacy and Consumer Protection in the Microfinance Sector”.

Over the past two years, “financial literacy road shows” have been carried out in all 10 regions of Ghana, easy-to-understand educational materials have been developed and distributed, high school quizzes have been organized, and radio programs on saving and responsible borrowing as well as television sitcoms on insurance have been telecast.

All activities will culminate at the Ghana Financial Literacy Week, which will take place from 28 September 28 to October 3, 2009.

Against this background, over 150 Ghanaian and international financial sector champions from the public sector and the financial sector as well as representatives from academia, consumer protection agencies, non-governmental organizations and development partners will discuss and evaluate whether “Ghana is on track and set the right priorities in financial capability and consumer protection”.

Additionally, innovative topics such as “Integrating Financial Capability into High Schools” and “Promoting Financial Capability through Mass Media” will be addressed.


Source: GNA

Ghana To Combat Counterfeiting And Piracy

President John Agyekum Kufuor yesterday expressed government's determination to ensure that stiffer laws are enacted to make counterfeiting and piracy crimes as offensive as drug trafficking and punish offenders as such.
     
He said government was poised to make Ghana a no-go zone for counterfeits and would ensure that special courts were established if necessary to hear cases involving the manufacture, distribution and sale of counterfeit or pirated products.
    
"This insidious crime of product counterfeiting has become a global phenomenon, it's no longer the canker of the under-developed or developing world. The developed world is also battling with counterfeiting products albeit at a scale lower than in our part of the world," he said.
     
The President made this known in a speech read for him by Mr  Kwadwo Mpiani, Chief of Staff, at the opening a two-day National Dialogue on Counterfeit Products in Accra for stakeholders.
     
The dialogue, the first to be organised by the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) in collaboration with European Union (EU) and the Institute of Packaging, Ghana, is on "Protecting the Consumer against counterfeit products through Inter-Agency and Regional collaboration."
     
President Kufuor noted that government was worried not only of the threat to human life but also the fact that counterfeit products denied genuine products of the rightful market share, costing governments significant amounts in lost tax revenues as well as threatening jobs and creating lack of consumer confidence in products.
     
According to the European Commission, counterfeiting and piracy cost the EU eight billion euros a year in lost economic output between 1998 and 2001.  "We can no longer ignore this activity whereby certain unscrupulous individuals and criminal gangs produce counterfeit medicines and medical devices which risk the lives of people, or as in the reported case in China a few years ago involving dummy milk formula for babies in which several children died." 
     
President Kufuor urged the meeting to make appropriate recommendations to government on policies and strategies to curb counterfeiting and piracy and develop strategies to overcome the major challenges confronting the nation, which he described as coordination of the activities of the different agencies in this area.
     
Health Minister Major Courage Quashigah (Rtd) said the counterfeit menace was worrying and its impact was enormous, adding that, counterfeiters deterred honest manufacturers from investing resources in new products.
     
He said various medicines, food and beverages, cosmetics and medical devices such as condoms were being counterfeited and noted that though scientific data was very scanty, efforts at fighting the menace needed to be more proactive.
     
Product counterfeiting, he said, hit everyone hard in the pocket and only the faceless persons behind the crime benefited, while legitimate businesses collapsed and many people also lost their lives.
     
"The magnitude of the problem caused by counterfeiting requires strong and sustained action from all stakeholders including businesses and consumers," he said.  Government, the Minister noted, was therefore committed to mobilising resources to protect intellectual property and said that Ghana had a high stake in optimising the use of intellectual property to protect the national knowledge, inventions and creativity.
     
He commended the role of neighbouring countries represented at the meeting and called for increased inter-agency cooperation at the national and sub-region levels and said it would enhance collective action against the heinous crime.
     
Miss Shirley Ayokor Botchway, Deputy Minister, Trade Industry, Presidential Special Initiatives and Private Sector Development said issues of intellectual property could not be overemphasized and that government would continue to wilfully support activities of regulatory, security and stakeholder agencies that were committed to fighting the crime.
     
She said the worrying nature of the crime was that consumers were increasingly being put at the risk of harm and death from unsafe and ineffective products which were exported through complex distribution channels before getting to the consumers.
     
She therefore called for a concerted effort to fight the crime and put in place quick decisive and punitive measures needed to bring rampant counterfeiting and piracy activities down.
     
Mr Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko, Chief Executive Officer of FDB, said the fight against counterfeiting and piracy could only be successful if stakeholders, including the consumer worked closely in a coordinated manner and across borders with the aim of "dismantling the modus operandi of the criminal gangs behind counterfeiting."
     
He noted that, it was time to get tough and deal decisively with the rip-off-artists and make them pay for the harm and pain inflicted on consumers and the economies of various countries.
     
Mr Agyarko urged participants to ensure that various options should be deployed to make markets better secured from counterfeits products.

Source: GNA
Posted: 22/07/08

http://www.ghana.gov.gh/ghana/ghana_combat_counterfeiting_and_piracy.jsp

Ghana Will Soon Have A National Competition Law, ISSER

Ghana will soon have a National Competition Law that will serve the purposes of ensuring efficiency in the production of goods and services.

The law will enable consumers of products and services to enjoy lower prices, higher quality goods and services with variety of choices.

Dr Charles Ackah, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) announced this at the first meeting of a group called the National Reference Group to discuss issues involved in having a competition policy in Ghana.

The National Reference Group has members from the National Communications Authority, Energy Commission, Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), Bank of Ghana, Trades Union, Non-Governmental Organisations especially those that focus on consumer protection and the Food and Drugs Board.

Dr Ackah explained that a National Competition Law in any developing country like Ghana can play an important role in tackling some abuses of the market power.

For example Ghacem, a cement producing company in Ghana, has been long suspected of price-fixing, he said and noted that prices of cement range from GH¢ 5.6 to GH¢ 10, while calculations commissioned by the Auditor General suggests that cement can be retailed at less than GH¢ 4.6.

Dr Ackah said when the law is passed a Competition Commission will be set up to regulate the Ghanaian Market and will ensure access to affordable and quality products and services.

"Ghana currently lacks a comprehensive consumer protection law," he said and explained that even though there are legal institutions to deal with issues that concerned consumer protection there are also challenges that need to be dealt with.

A competition policy in Ghana will adopt advocacy through the National Reference Group to educate citizens about existing laws and regulations to guarantee people access to the right information about access to affordable and quality products.

Mr Rijit Sengupta, Deputy Head of CUTS International, India based non governmental organisation that focuses on promoting competition policy, consumer protection, human development and trade issues especially in developing countries said there is the need for the right regulatory framework to ensure an effective competition policy in a country.

He said the project featuring in Ghana, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo will engage in research, dialogues, advocacy, networking and training to educate people about competition policy.

Civil society organisations, the business community and governments are expected to be the direct beneficiaries and the National Reference Group members will help enhance knowledge on competition policy and consumer welfare.

Mr Sengupta noted that, the project will promote a healthy competitive culture in the country while establishing communication channels between civil society, the business community and government.

Source: GNA
Posted: 20/09/08

http://www.ghana.gov.gh/ghana/ghana_will_soon_have_national_competition_law_isser.jsp

Ghanaian Consumers Can Sue Electricity Conpany Of Ghana (ECG)

...BLAME HIS [ECG MD] IGNORANCE AND THE MISSING CONSUMER PROTECTION BILL...

...says Jean Yaw Twum Lukaz MIH, Consumer Advocate

Ignorant and arrogant statements by Mr. Jude Adu-Amankwah, Managing Director of ECG, marked the moment of truth for the lack of a Consumer Protection Law in Ghana. The Consumer Protection Bill is still lost in the files of the /ministry of Trade due to the manipulations of companies like ECG who feel threatened by its provisions. The Consumer Protection Bill is still under the carpet so that Ghanaian Consumers can continue to hear the trumpets of ignorance coming from "unenlightened" people in his likes.

For a whole Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Boss to make such a statement with the intention of intimidating Ghanaian consumers is a sad story. Mr. Jude Adu-Amankwah, Managing Director of ECG, called the bluff of Ghanaian electricity consumers when he made the statement that consumers are helpless receivers of poor electricity supplies who are receiving a favour from ECG and not a service demands his resignation. He simply does not understand the responsibilities he has been given.

Commercial influence in our politics and judicial system is degrading consumer protection in Ghana whilst denying Ghanaian Consumers of their rights. Lack of a small claims court and Consumer Redress systems makes consumer actions a matter beyond the reach of poor Ghanaian consumers.

Electricity Companies have been sued worldwide and Ghana is not a new story. Consumers will need to initiate a class action against ECG. The problems arise when it comes to proof but consumers do not need to be technicians to prove that ECG is supplying poor quality electricity to Ghanaian Consumers. The equipment needed to consistently measure and record the quality of electricity being delivered to Ghanaians is not readily available but simple experiments do the trick.

In most of the developing countries where consumer class actions have been brought against electricity suppliers and consumers have won the adjudication has been rooted in the existing Consumer Protection Laws which give consumers a framework for redress. Examples are India, Indonesia, Philippines, etc.