After 7 and half years Consumer Protection Bill, no show in Parliament

The New Patriotic Party (NPP), in opposition in 2016, promised in its 2016 Manifesto "to protect Ghanaians from inferior quality goods, products, and services, we will facilitate the passage of a Consumer Protection Law." (Page 31 of the NPP 2016 Manifesto). With almost eight years in government, the Consumer Protection Bill has not shown up in Parliament.

While the Draft Consumer Protection Bill gathers dust on the mahogany desk on the Third Floor of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) Building, tonnes of draft bills from other ministries are moving with jet-like speed through the legislative process to Parliament and are getting passed.

From the tall list of bills that the NPP inherited from the previous administration at the MOTI, only two managed to get to Parliament and were passed: the Ghana Standards Authority Act 2022, Act 1078, and the Ghana Accreditation Service Act 2023, Act 1102.

Ghana got its first Consumer Protection Draft Bill in 2006. Four presidents have come and three have gone, yet the progress has been painstakingly slow with no demonstrable appetite by the Executive arm to facilitate the passage of the bill.

It is clear that the absence of a Consumer Protection Law in the country has contributed to the widespread and deliberate abuse of consumer rights in the country. Consumer rights are fundamental human rights which the state has a binding duty to promote, protect, and safeguard through the enactment of laws and their enforcement.

Since 2017, the bill has been listed among the bills to be received by Parliament. However, checks indicated that the bill has never made its way to Parliament.

It is discouragingly disheartening and pathetic the snail's pace at which the MOTI is handling the process. The seeming lack of interest in the law by the MOTI can be seen to have stalled progress. The concern of many Ghanaians is that if urgency is not attached, the bill will not be passed within the life of this current Parliament.

Nothing has changed much since 2016 when the NPP made this promise as the country continues to become the junkyard of substandard goods. There has been a deliberate attempt by businesses to abuse consumers in the marketplace.

The majority of businesses continue to display goods sold as not returnable, a clear indication that goods being sold are not fit for the purpose they claim. For a manufacturer or merchant to say goods sold are not returnable, it means that the goods are inferior and not fit for purpose.

When passed into law, the Act would empower, protect, and enhance the welfare and interest of the consumer, promote a fair, transparent, and efficient marketplace, provide a consistent and effective consumer protection framework, prohibit certain unfair practices, promote fair business practices and responsible consumer behavior, improve consumer awareness, education, and information, and establish the Consumer Protection Commission, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Lots of complex bills have been passed into law within the past seven years. In commercial aviation, it takes an average of eight years for a manufacturer to design and manufacture new aircraft and get regulatory approval.

It took Boeing about eight years from the launch to the first delivery of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The 787 Boeing Dreamliner contains approximately 2.3 million parts. Similarly, it took Airbus about ten years to launch the first delivery of its A-350 aircraft. Clearly, the 18 years that it has taken Ghana to get the Consumer Protection Bill passed into law is not acceptable.

In 2018, CUTS and the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) mobilized over 20,000 signatures urging the Executive to tidy up every work that needs to be done on the draft bill and have it forwarded to Parliament.

The past four weeks have seen the Honourable K.T Hammond trying to get a legislative instrument to regulate the pricing of cement in the country. While the Minister has a good intention of protecting consumers, there cannot be any better law to protect consumers in Ghana than the Consumer Protection Law. The Minister must redistribute some of his time to pursue the Consumer Protection Bill.

We have waited too long on this bill. Ghanaians have not demonstrated enough righteous indignation about the delays it has taken and the abuses that businesses have inflicted on them. Procrastination is still the thief of time.

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "the hour is late and the clock of destiny is ticking out and we must act before it is too late." Parliament is currently on break. The Third and Final Meeting of the House will begin on Tuesday, October 8, and adjourn on Friday, November 1.

The recess for the 2024 general election will begin on Tuesday, November 5 to Friday, January 3, 2025. If the MOTI wants to facilitate the passage of the bill into law, it still has the window of opportunity to do so. Ghanaian consumers cannot wait for another Parliament to pass the Consumer Protection Bill into law.