The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has urged manufacturers, distributors and importers to ensure that consumer products in Nigeria are labelled in English to inform consumers effectively.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Tunji Bello, made the call on Wednesday at an event to commemorate the 2026 World Consumer Rights Day in Abuja.

Mr Bello, represented by the director of the Surveillance and Investigations Department of the commission, Boladale Adeyinka, said the commission continued to encounter products that did not meet basic safety and quality standards.

According to him, there are many products labelled in languages that are not official languages of Nigeria.

”Every consumer product in Nigeria should be labelled in the English language; that is the official language in Nigeria.

”You see products in Chinese or Hindu; those products are falling short of the legal standards in the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.

He said that if such products were found in the market, they were already deemed unsafe because consumers would be consuming what they do not know or what they are incapable of understanding.

Mr Bello described the theme of the event, “Safe Products, Confident Consumers,” as apt.

He said it captured a simple but important truth: that where safety was uncertain, confidence would decline, and where confidence declined, markets would become weaker, less efficient, and less trustworthy.

”We are gathered at a time when product safety has become central to market integrity, consumer confidence, and public welfare. Some of these failures arise from weak internal control.

“Others reflect gaps in compliance culture. In certain instances, there are indications of deliberate disregard for legal and regulatory obligations.

“In certain instances, there are indications of deliberate disregard for legal and regulatory obligations. The effect is immediate and serious. Product safety, therefore, cannot be treated as a secondary matter. It is a core obligation, with clear public interest consequences,” he said.

A representative of the Manufacturer Association of Nigeria (MAN), Folorunsho Adeyemi, urged citizens to believe in Nigerian-made products.

Mr Adeyemi said the market had been bedevilled with smuggling and counterfeiting, adding that most substandard products were smuggled into the country.

Also speaking, a representative of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Isiaku Mohammed, said the organisation was collaborating with various agencies to make sure that only safe and standard products penetrated the markets.

Contributing, the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics of the National Agency for Drugs, Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Salihu Mohammed, urged the public to contact the agency over substandard products noticed in the market.

Mr Mohammed said that any product with a NAFDAC number had gone through various scrutiny by the agency.

Thomas Okosun of the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal called on the public to visit the tribunal for redress in the event of consumer rights breaches by service providers.

”If you pay for a product and they tell you that you cannot get a refund, please come to us,” he said.

The day also featured the 9th National Young Consumers Contest (NYCC) among secondary schools from across the country. 

(NAN)