Govt records increase of consumer cases on substandard products

By Gashegu Muramira.

 The Rwanda Inspectorate, Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (RICA) Wednesday said that they have registered a sharp increase in the number of cases of consumers complaining of substandard goods sold to them.

 Emmanuel Mugabe, the RICA acting Director of Competition and Consumer Protection Unit said that they registered over 37 cases of that kind last year, and that the number has since doubled this year.

Emmanuel Mugabe, the RICA acting Director of Competition and Consumer Protection Unit.

“All these years that RICA has been in operation, there has been an increment in registration of new cases because Rwandans get to know about what we do and they report such cases to us. The biggest challenge is that some consumers don’t know how to exercise their rights by reporting such cases to us,” he said.

“With the help of COMESA Competition Commission and the EAC East African Community Competition Authority (EACA), we are doing everything possible to solve these consumer complaint cases.”

Citing consumer compliant cases as mostly those of electronic home appliances, and phones, Mugabe said that RICA holds sensitization workshops at public gatherings and talk-shows on different media to ensure consumers learn about the authority and report such cases for action.

RICA was established by a 2017 law to carry out inspection of quality and standards conformity and promote healthy competition in the economy by prohibiting unfair business practices as well ensuring consumers protection.

Geoffrey Mwesige, an outdoor advertiser said he made a huge purchase of Chinese-made reflective sheetings worth 20 million francs from a trader in 2020, only to be told by his contractor two years later that the products were substandard.

“I was told that the sheets I supplied were substandard and peeling off the road sign posts. My contracter demanded that I replace them with new and original ones that usually last more than 10 years. When I went back to the trader who sold them to me to demand a replacement, I was told he had shifted to doing business from Kigali to Dubai, so I had to incur another loss of 20 million francs to replace them,” Mwesige said.

Damien Ndizeye, the Executive Director of the Rwanda Consumer Rights Protection Organisation (ADECOR), said that they register cases of traders who when they notice that the goods in their store are soon expiring, they do re-packaging to read new and longer expiry dates, thereby putting the lives of Rwandan consumers at risk.

“We have had another case where packed juices from some partner states of the East African Community (EAC) enter the Rwandan market with wrong labelling. For instance, some conceal ingredient contents like the amount of sugar in their juice products, and these have affected our consumers who suffer from diseases such as diabetes and high blood sugar,” Ndizeye said.

“We also have cases of paint from neigbouring EAC partner states that has been used by our members, and has been washed away from walls when it rains.”

Steven Kamukama, the Director of Consumer Welfare and Advocacy at the COMESA Competition Commission (CCC) said that COMESA comes in to help such consumers when there are complaints lodged in at individual level or at the level of National Competition authorities like RICA.

“When we get a specific report with all details about what the consumer went through, we penalize the company that exported the product to any member state of COMESA,” Kamukama said, quoting an example where CCC forced a Zambian company to do the right labeling and compesate for product that proved to put the life of Malawian customers at risk.

The COMESA consumer welfare and advocacy division is mandated to enforce part 5 of the COMESA Competition regulations to protect consumers in the COMESA region against unfair trade practices by market actors.

Among other functions, the division monitors, identifies, and receives complaints and undertakes investigations on consumer infringements regarding unsafe or defective goods in the market in accordance with articles 31/32 of the regulations, which prohibit persons in trade from supplying goods which do not comply to prescribed consumer product safety and product information standards.