Consumer Watchdogs are often crucial to ignite consumer action so as to promote consumer education, advocacy and financial literacy among the general public who are predominantly consumers. Dr. Kamayoyo Kelvin, Zambian economist, antitrust law expert and Scholar noted that in most African countries the voice of a consumer is either silent or non-existent as such it is difficult to ascertain whether consumers are extracting full value of their monies during the course of transacting on the market. Arguably, economic growth can not be fully celebrated without having serious consideration to the well-being of a consumer whose disposable personal income plays a significant role in influencing the movement of a demand curve on any market.
The relationship between consumer watchdogs and consumer action is symbiotic and is not new to the world as this has been there as early as 1970s when it was institutionalised in Europe and the United States of America. For instance, in 1971 Consumer Action a nonprofit, consumer education and advocacy center was established to serve consumers in the United States. The center since then has been in existence and active in helping individual consumers to assert their rights in the marketplace including influencing pro-consumer industry-wide change for the benefit of all.
According to Nikolina Sajn (2019), “the latest available data for European Union market in 2016, one in five consumers said that they had a reason to complain in the last 12 months, a level which has largely remained unchanged since 2008.” Comparatively such results in Africa may not be inadvertedly recorded. Thus, the situation may be similar or even worse for the continent of Africa considering that the voice of a consumer is silent and consumer satisfaction or perception surveys are barely conducted in most countries.
Consumer Watchdogs are simply individuals or groups created to promote and protect the interests of the buying general public. Undeniably, consumer watchdogs has potential to promote competition and free markets thereby complementing efforts of respective government antitrust authorities on the continent of Africa. The works of consumer watchdogs helps to strengthen the voice of consumers and give feedback to firms competing for the provision of goods and services in a relevant market or industry. Consumer feedback serves as a constructive critique and reflective tool for identifying areas in need of improvement within a business or economy. Therefore, competition in business is a matter of life for any industry and its consequence determines the utility derived by the consumers. _To achieve this, firms need to embrace a culture of competition that spurs innovation and generates more choices for consumers.
Notwithstanding, most stakeholders in Africa rarely conduct constructive discussions around the welfare of consumers in the circular economy. Conceivably, today it is somewhat challenging to establish the welfare status of consumers in many industries because of fewer or inactive Consumer Watchdogs and absence of consumer satisfaction and perception surveys conducted especially in industries such as food, delivery and taxi transportation, mobile and Internet services, insurance, banking, rentals and health services. It is important that consumer watchdogs in Africa embarked on consumer action that is anchored on empirical evidence through conducting specific industry random consumer satisfaction and perception surveys so that consumers can give independent feedback about their experiences.
In any free market economy the fundamental equaliser for the existence of market players is the behaviour of market forces which is demand and supply. However, the weakest or most vulnerable economic actor on the market is often the consumer because of being the end-user or on the end-tail of the value chain. Mostly consumers are victims of unfair trade practices, predatory behaviour and deception orchestrated by some firms engaged into restrictive business practices. As the economy continue to record substantial growth, most likely some firms develop insatiable appetite for generating exponential profits and somehow become indifferent about the welfare of the consumers. Therefore, consumer interests ought to be protected using a multidisciplinary approach in order to improve consumer welfare and guarantee increased consumer satisfaction.
The article is for education purposes and consumer advocacy, and comments can be sent to the author antitrust law expert, economist and scholar, on: [email protected]
