Babatunde Irukera, the CEO of the Federal Competition and Protection Commission (FCCPC), has expressed his desire to see fewer instances of corporations breaking their statutory obligations.Irukera made these remarks in a recent interview with ARISE NEWS, during which he also disclosed that the majority of the FCCPC's internally generated revenue (IGR) is attributable to business violations of their statutory obligations.
The head of the FCCPC went on to say that even if there are fewer infractions and the commission's IGR declines, he would still be a very happy man.
The majority of our income has come from businesses breaking their legal obligations. In light of this, he added, "I say to us regulators that we are not here to make money and that we are not a government funding agency, but people will continue to behave anyway in the absence of consequences."
Therefore, the IGR is not so much a mandate as it is not a goal. It is as a result of wrongdoing by humans. If our IGR decreases, it won't mean that we work less; rather, it will mean that fewer people are breaking the law.
Thus, we moved forward in that way and developed our investigative capability, which is, in my opinion, the most crucial thing, as I discovered that the market is quite crowded with a wide variety of items, even respectable companies.
Irukera went on to say that Nigerians generally take a very lax approach to regulatory work.
According to the head of the FCCPC, this has accounted for a larger portion of his efforts to bring about change through the commission.
In order for the commission to hold the companies accountable for their wrongdoings, Irukera also stated that he declined all offers of cooperation or support from any business.
He stated, "The CPC as it existed was entirely a government funded organization, receiving payroll and treasury funding totaling an average of one billion naira annually."
"I had a strong belief when I assumed leadership there that, given Nigeria's size, we required stronger regulations to control competition and even consumer protection.
Now that we have a new law in place, one of my initial thoughts was that, as a country, we take a very lax approach to regulatory work. This was evident the day the law was operationalized.
"This is in that the regulators are dependent on funding from the government or the industry, and I found that to be unacceptable."
He expressed the opinion that a regulator for consumer protection, particularly one that oversees competition, needs to make business easier.