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By Merit Ibe
Experts have acknowledged that the rights and responsibilities of consumers are two key elements that should not be taken lightly. They noted that if service providers understand that they only exist because of the consumers, then the parlance: ‘Consumer is the king’ will make much sense to them.
The experts, who spoke on the theme: Digital Finance: Risks, Opportunities and Challenges for Consumers,” made their submissions at the 2022 World Consumer Rights Day symposium organised by Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN).
The symposium held in Lagos, attracted stakeholders from the Integrated Marketing Communications and the financial Technology industry.
Dr. Ken Onyeali-Ikpe, Non Executive Director, Troyka Holdings, said every organisation is into service/ consumer service and the moment every business owner realises that once the consumers are taken out of the equation, they are no longer relevant, then everyone will sit up and the issue of blame game between customers and providers when issues arise will be no more.
On his part, Dr. Oluseyi Akindeinde, Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Digital Encode, said a lot of issues arising from the consumption of digital financial services showed that perhaps somebody somewhere is not doing his job, to validate technical applications especially in the area of glitch.
“The genesis of fraud and cyber security issues arise from the delegation of control over our bank account because what control do we have when there is a third party who has access to the same account, it means that that person can do what he or she is not supposed to do.”
While calling on consumers to be responsible in their consumption, Dr Monday Michaels Ashibogwu, Executive Member, Association of Communications Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN), said the consumer is the end user of any services provided and any service or product that do not have consideration for the consumer is fraudulent in the first place.
According to him, most service providers set out to be fraudulent ab initio by creating terms and conditions that are not favourable to consumers. He attributed this, among other problems, to the failure of the system, which most times allows some of the anomalies to go on for a while before some of the problems raised by consumers are eventually looked into.
Also speaking, Bisi Oni, Executive Director/COO FundQuest Financial Services, said digital finance is finance aided digitally which has brought improvement in our financial services.
For the past 10 years, the association has ensured that cosumer rights day is celebrated in Nigeria in commemoration with the set aside date.
This year’s event also witnessed the formal inauguration of the newly elected executives of the association.
In her acceptance speech, Clara Okoro, said the mandate bestowed on the executives is a mandate which brings about a burden to serve not only members of the association but also the entire marketing communications industry “through our roles as journalists, it is our collective duty to ensure that its sanctity is not denigrated or assaulted”.
“As the new Chairman of this great association, I will work assiduously with my colleagues in the Executive Committee to build on the achievements recorded by my predecessors. I will work for the protection and promotion of the rights of members and one of our major ambitions is to drive the process of making the BJAN ESTATE a reality where our members would become house owners even if it’s a bungalow a scheme that would make them more focused and efficient in discharging their duties as journalists,” she said.
The event which was moderated by Mr Sola Fanawopo CEO of eMaginations recorded quite a large number turnout from the marketing communications industry practitioners.
