The Disappearing Quality/Standards of Goods & Services in Nigeria by Philip Asuquo

For the past months, I have keenly watched as certain goods and services have been pushed into the market and in the consumption space of Nigerians without regard for the quality or standard they come in.

From airtime to data and on to even the local bread in our neighborhoods, the standards of products and services have dropped drastically and people have been complaining about it.

You load an airtime and within seconds, the airtime is exhausted. You load data for a month and within a week, the data gets exhausted too.

I bought a drink sometime ago and as I tried peeling off the label just as I do when I get the original, I found out the label was done with plain paper instead of the cellophane material the original comes with.

Needless to say, the drink tasted differently yet it is being sold openly in a supermarket and even a bit costlier than the original.

Who is responsible for checking the standards of services and goods in this country?

Do we have regulatory bodies? Do we really have a Standard Organization of Nigeria? How about the Consumer Protection body? Are they working?

I have watched the depreciation in standards of goods and services in Nigeria for a while now and it beguiles me to think that there are people occupying agencies that are supposed to tackle this but don't seem to be doing their jobs.

The standards of drugs in Nigeria has also dropped. ATMs used to charge about N65 after one makes transactions on another bank's machine three times and above but today it happens immediately after every transaction.

Every sector seem to have lost the noble cause to uphold standards and protect the consumer from shady and substandard products and services.

I have tried to uncover what factors could be the cause of this current reality in Nigeria and I can tell that they are not far from the ones listed below:

1) Harsh economic reality
2) Greed
3) Corruption

Yes, the economy of the country has had pretty bad nose dives over the past three years. It has apparently affected the income of many and escalated the cost of living. The cost of living has pushed most Nigerians towards the substandard coffers and thus made many live below the poverty line.

As expected, when the economy is this affected, greedy men come into play. These men take advantage of the situation in the country and enrich themselves from the people's poverty.

The role corruption has played in all this is quite vast too. For one, those who produce goods and render services have been involved in sharp practices that lowers the standards of their goods and services or increase the cost. The corruption has also been seen among those who ought to regulate the sectors of the economy. Eyes have turned blind to the lowering standards that ought to be regulated. Ears have gone deaf to the complaints that could and have come from the consumers.

What becomes of us if we continue this way? What is the Nigerian standard for quality? Who is upholding it and who should we hold responsible for its drop?

We have heard of scenarios where countries become dumping grounds for other countries and cases where the government of certain countries put their foot down when it came to the quality of certain goods or services made available for their citizens.

In Nigeria, even our brothers and sisters who produce or render services have made their output become garbage that is dumped within our country for their fellow brothers and sisters. Our government agencies on the other hand seem to have put their foot up instead of down to combat this malaise.

Nigeria needs to drastically avert this crisis of standards and this will be done when we raise the alarm over poor services and products and have our regulatory bodies function like they should.

The men put at the helm of agencies that ought to regulate our sectors need to be given a wake up call or walked out of office. We can't play possum to these failing standards.

Dear Nigerians, when you find a poor quality product or substandard service, lay your complaints against it and if you can, bring it online and tag the company producing it or agency that ought to regulate it, please do so. You can use the hashtag, #RaiseTheNigerianStandard to do your social media posts.

We need to raise awareness about this failing standards of goods and services in our country and call out the ailing product/service producers and regulatory agencies to put them in check. We need to complain about it. We can't keep mute over it more than we have.

The agencies responsible for regulating these industries should wake up to their responsibilities. The service or product providers should be more human and remove the sharp practices they engage in. Those found wanting should be prosecuted accordingly.

Philip Asuquotes is a Brand|Media Strategy Consultant. He can be reached via @Philasuquotes on social media or Email philasuquotes@gmail.com