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CUTS Ghana, a public policy research and think tank, calls on regulators to be proactive and enforce existing regulations to protect consumer interests from poor services and substandard goods. absence of an effective law on consumer protection.
"In the absence of a functional law on consumer protection, it is imperative that sectoral regulators fulfill their regulatory mandate to ensure that consumers in the country do not receive a bad deal. The task of protecting Ghanaian consumers should not be left to a non-existent law on consumer protection. Existing laws and regulations contain many provisions that, once implemented, can protect consumers from corporate misconduct, "said Appiah Kusi Adomako, national director of CUTS Ghana.
Mr. Adomako made this appeal when he was speaking to a representative group of journalists as part of the activities organized on the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day in Ghana.
Status of the Consumer Protection Act
For more than three decades, the country has been pushing for consumer protection legislation, and the bill is now on the list of bills to be considered by Parliament this year.
It seems that the government and the companies are less interested in the bill. That's why the bill has been long in being pbaded.
Mr. Adomako said, "In the absence of a functional law on consumer protection, this has literally made Ghana a dumping ground for substandard products and poor service delivery. If Ghanaian companies can not produce goods and services that meet international standards, Ghana may not be able to take advantage of the Continental Free Trade Agreement and exports to other markets where our standards are high. "
Financial and banking services
The Central Bank needs to step up regulatory efforts to ensure that Canada's financial service providers do not abuse consumer rights and do not take them for granted.
According to a study conducted by CUTS Ghana, most financial service users using unauthorized charges mentioned in their accounts are a major concern for them.
The main among them are the deductions made when a customer uses a bank machine from a third party bank to take money when his own bank machine is out of order.
Most banks in the country charge a flat monthly fee for ATM cards. ATMs may be unavailable or down for a variety of reasons: power outage, lack of funds, system trouble or machine failure, etc. All these reasons, however, are not attributable to customers.
However, when a customer uses a third-party machine to withdraw money at the moment his own bank distributor is down, the customer incurs a cost that is not reimbursed by his bank. To solve this problem, CUTS Ghana is using the Bank of Ghana to allow customers to use a third-party ATM machine twice a month to make a no-charge withdrawal to counter the effects of vending machine failures. in the country.
Once again, consumers are also complaining about the lack of disclosure of information on fees and charges, for example when it is intended to use a bank machine for visas for third parties.
In most countries, before proceeding, the costs to be incurred are indicated to the consumer, giving him the choice whether to proceed with the transaction.
Another practice that is also of concern to some consumers is that some banks charge a customer who moves to a branch office with a withdrawal of less than 1000 GHC.
If a bank can accept a cash deposit of less than GH1,000 without billing the customer, the same bank should be able to allow the customer to withdraw any amount below 1,000 GHC at no charge.
This practice is very unfair because it is not mandatory to use an ATM. If care is not taken, it would prevent people from using the banking services.
Electricity
Recently, many Ghanaians using prepaid ECG / PDS meters complained that the units they bought for their prepaid meters were running faster than before, although no upward revision of Rates have not been paid. 65% of respondents sampled complaints about this.
CUTS Ghana asks PURC to mandate the PDS to better inform consumers who use prepaid meters on consumption. At the moment, this gives the impression that it is better to use a post-paid meter.
CUTS therefore calls on PURC to investigate and deal with complaints.
Aviation
Since Ghana has not been able to incorporate the Montreal Convention on the Rights of Pbadengers of Airlines, the rights of Ghanaian air travelers are sometimes violated without recourse mechanism.
Problems with delays, flight cancellations, overbooking and loss of baggage are a major concern for pbadengers.
Some international airlines operating in Ghana meet stricter standards in their home countries and in other markets, but for Ghana, they maintain a low level of customer service.
While the country plans to make Accra Airport an air hub, CUTS is asking the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to implement the guidelines on the consumer protection in order to protect consumers against unfair practices.
Telecom Services
Consumers have expressed a number of concerns in the telecommunications sector. Among them, the high cost of Internet / data and its time out, poor connectivity and poor call quality.
CUTS Ghana calls on the National Communication Authority to avoid excessive regulation in the sector, which would increase telecom operating costs.
CUTS is also calling on telecom operators to look again at the stated expiration date for data packets. MTN and Vodafone may be inspired by Airtel / Tigo's expiring data packet plan.
Road and public safety
The right to security is one of the rights of the consumer. The proliferation of road accidents on major roads in urban areas has become a major concern for motorists and pedestrians.
The police service, for example, reported more than 1,200 traffic-related deaths, 6,145 accident cases and 11,053 vehicles involved in accidents from January to June 2018.
These accidents result not only from the carelessness of the drivers, but also from the bad nature of the roads, the consequences of adverse weather conditions (floods), defective traffic lights and abandoned vehicles.
The absence of adequate street lights and / or the fact that the street lights do not work and the traffic lights fail pose security problems. Other public safety issues, such as open pit excavations, discriminatory garbage disposal, gutters and clogged drains, violate public safety rights.
CUTS Ghana is urgently calling on urban roads and municipal authorities to improve public safety by repairing everything that has been broken.
CUTS is a public policy think tank working in the areas of consumer protection and education, trade and development, competition and economic regulation, and governance and policy tax.
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