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The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has robustly engaged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on this issue, pursuant to S.17 (b), (f), (g), (i) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA), including meetings of the highest levels of leadership of both regulators. The FCCPC’s strongly held position was that an assessment imposed on merchants necessarily is a component of their cost of doing business, and may only be directly passed on to consumer in limited circumstances.
For many reasons, including and particularly the CBN’s effort to promote a cashless economy, the merchants’ response of imposing this assessment on consumers was not only inconsistent with the underlying policy, but also counterproductive and burdensome on consumers.
Businesses, by their very nature, already capture the operating cost price of their goods and services. To impose an additional fee on consumers that is exclusive of price and discriminates based on the selected mode of payment essentially amounts to a penalty for the adopted mode of payment.
The problems associated with carrying excessive cash in order to avoid a penalty are myriad and multifaceted. Accordingly, the Commission welcomes the CBN’s definitive statement on December 23, 2019, clarifying its September 17, 2019 directive by Circular Ref. PSM/Dir/CON/02/015 that the directive did not intend to pass such fees to consumers. This makes it inappropriate and illegal for businesses to pass a stamp duty cost of doing their business to consumers.
