By Donstance Koroma
The Communications Supervisor, Consumer Relation Department, National Consumer Protection Commission (NCPC), Samuel Pratt, in an exclusive interview with this medium, disclosed that the newly formed Commission is currently battling with extortion faced by the business community in Sierra Leone.
According to the Communication Supervisor, complaints on a daily basis are reaching the Commission in respect of CSOs visiting business houses and extorting monies, which, he noted, led to the Chief Executive Officer, National Consumer Protection Commission, Lawrence Landi Bassie, advising business owners not to dish out money to such individuals.
Pratt continued that a total of four hundred and fifty five (455) individuals are presently roaming the country purporting to be consumer protection inspectors and extorting monies from business owners unnecessarily.
The Communications Supervisor disclosed that those individuals are not recognized by the National Consumer Protection Commission and that the business community should not have any dealings with individuals claiming to be consumer inspectors without the respective identification.
“As a Commission, we recognize the Consumer Watch, Consumer Protection Council, Consumer Protection Agency and Consumer Welfare as the organizations working on consumerism,” Pratt noted.
He furthered that all staff employed by the Commission are graduates that went through rigorous scrutiny, especially with regards to integrity, before employment, and through training sessions organized by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Anti-Corruption Commission.
He also attested that the Commission has a Board that had long been constituted, with two leaders out of the four recognized CSOs on consumer protection, appointed by the President to serve in the Board. These were approved by the Sierra Leone Parliament and inaugurated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Since the establishment of the Commission in December of 2023, over eight engagements have been held with Civil Society Organizations working on consumer protection between February 2024- March 2025, Pratt noted.
He cited an engagement in February of 2024, when the Commission called for the registration documents of all CSOs working on consumer protection to determine the number of CSOs working in the space and their legal status.
On the 26th April 2024, another engagement was held with CSOs in respect to an attack on social media, on the Chief Executive Officer, National Consumer Protection Commission, Lawrence Landi Bassie, over his zero tolerance for extortion.
A joint engagement with the business community and CSOs was also organized by the National Consumer Protection Commission at the Conference center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to apprise them about the mandate of the Commission and its zero tolerance for bribery and extortion, as well as dissemination of consumer protection messages.
Since the advent of the Commission, we have been engaging in inspection exercises with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Sierra Leone Standards Bureau’s technical experts, CSOs and the media to inspect building materials stores in Waterloo, Western Rural District and warehouses in Freetown.
During the inspection exercise, the team discovered substandard iron rods and three shops in Waterloo were closed and fines levied on the business owners. These fines were paid by the business owners into the Consolidated Revenue Fund and receipts produced to the Commission before they were opened.
He furthered that the Commission had also removed huge quantities of expired goods from shops, brought to the office and later destroyed in the presence of CSO representatives and the media at the Waterloo dumping site, with armed police officers in attendance to secure the area and prevent people from entering the dumping site to collect those expired products.
The Communications Supervisor was responding to allegations of incompetence of the National Consumer Protection Commission, absence of a Board and appointment of staff without due process, all being allegations levied by some workers of CSOs.
The National Consumer Protection Act of 2020 was enacted by the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone, an act that seeks to address issues or concerns on consumer protection in Sierra Leone. The said Act called for the setting up of a commission to carry out the functions spelt out in the Act.
CSOs on consumer protection graciously lauded Parliament for legislating the Consumer Protection Commission Act of 2020, noting that this had long been their cry for a legislation that will seek to address grave concerns on consumer protection.