Effective regulation of service provision by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) in the past six years has led to milestones in revenue generation that enabled the agency attain financial autonomy from January 1, 2023.
Executive Vice Chairman of the Agency, Babatunde Irukera who made the disclosure at a media parley tagged ‘Reflection of the Road So Far,’ on Thursday, in Abuja, commended the Nigerian media for its support even as he tasked the press to do more by exposing businesses that thrive on anti-consumer practices.
Reeling out figures, the Executive Vice Chairman said his agency raked-in N56 billion in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 2023 while it remitted N22.4 billion to government coffers.
While saying that ninety percent of the revenue generated by the FCCPC is from penalties, he commented on the anti corruption posture of the organization, saying that an FCCPC staff who betrayed public trust by conniving with a company was prosecuted by the agency.
Irukera, who earned eminence for his advocacy for consumer rights prior to his appointment as Director-General of the CPC, as it then was, said the media has a key role to play as they must ensure that fraudulent businesses are exposed.
Discussing factors that help to stabilize service provision, Irukera said: “What makes the market stable is holding businesses accountable,” adding that the Commission will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that erring business establishments, however well placed they may be, are brought to book provided that they failed to protect consumers.
“We are not trying to close down businesses but they must know that if you snooze, you lose. You cannot distort the market and expect that there will be no consequences,” he stated.
Discussing budgetary allocations to the Commission since 2017, Irukera said the agency got one billion naira as budget from the government while it generated N154 million as IGR same year.
He further explained that the Commission received N3.3 billion and N1.3 billion in 2018 and 2019 respectively as budgetary allocations from government while it realized N377 million as IGR in 2019.
He said in 2020, the FCCPC budgetary allocation from government was N887 million while it raked in N864 million as IGR.
He stated: “By 2021, the government approved a budget of N1.8 billion to the Commission while the agency generated N4 billion and remitted N1.6 billion.”
“What the government released from the treasury that year for the agency was N1.3 billion, so the agency gave the government more money than it got from it.”
“In 2022, the government budget for the FCCPC stood at N1.3 billion, but the agency did not touch a single kobo of the operational or capital expense, instead, the agency made N5.2 billion and remitted N2.6 billion,” Irukera said.
The Executive Vice Chairman further disclosed that since January 1 2023, the FCCPC attained the status of a financially self-sustaining agency as it did not utilize budgetary provisions of government.
“In 2023, our IGR is N56 billion and we remitted to the government N22.4 billion,” he said.
