Sadly, customers are no longer recognized as king in Nigeria. "This is a reflection of the many years of poor service delivery they have endured in a country where fraud, deception and unwholesome business practices in the marketplace have been robbing them of their hard-earned income and for which they are unable to get any satisfactory redress."

Most businesses pay little or no attention to customer service and therefore would rather spend as little as possible on improving their customer service. The consumers have been dealt with every now and then, and consumer rights overlooked, as these service providers feel entitled to the services they offer.

Our electricity companies force consumers to pay monthly bills for services never enjoyed. Consumer's meters are no longer read yet bills are allocated and still, they are non-responsive to the customers when there's a disruption in distribution. Also, communication providers are ineffective to consumers dissatisfactions during network glitches.

Often, I imagine that we walk into a bank or an establishment and we get to wait hours on end before being attended to or having to endure being talked to rudely by the employees, being unable to express ourselves, just so we can get the service or products we deserve.

Service delivery in the public sector is at an embarrassing low. This is despite the introduction by the Head of Service some years ago, of SERVICOM, a public sector service pact with Nigerians. To access a service as simple as seeing a doctor in a public hospital, one has to contend with the abysmally poor infrastructure and the lackadaisical conduct of the staff.

Well, poor service delivery can change, consumer protection is linked to the idea of consumer rights, and to the formation of consumer organizations, which help consumers make better choices in the marketplace and get help with consumer complaints. There's consumer protection in Nigeria also, a group of specific bodies set up to help consumers deal with issues where companies have either provided poor service or have sold substandard goods to the consumer. This organization is the Consumer Protection Council – CPC.

Most consumers are ignorant of the Consumer protection act in Nigeria. The right of the consumer to be protected and not ignored. The consumer protection act is beneficial to the consumer and very functional in a variety of ways.

Source: https://ceecare.com/publications/view/customer-is-still-king-the-rights-of-the-consumer-in-nigeria/dca8c684-8201-4664-a61e-75e7b7f47e75