The Nigerian government's vengeful and idiotic federal consumer protection unit persists in its unrelenting attack on MultiChoice Nigeria and has issued a "final order", again demanding that the pay-TV operator adhere to outrageous demands like a "24-hour call centres, 7 days a week" and allow DStv and GOtv subscribers to switch off their pay-TV subscription for at least 3 times per year for 45 days per year.
These demands are part of 11 directives in a "final order" that Nigeria's Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) issued against MultiChoice Nigeria.
While DStv subscribers in Nigeria with the country's tanking local currency are already paying the least on the continent for their pay-TV subscriptions and are subsidised the most by The MultiChoice Group's MultiChoice Africa division, Nigeria's FCCPC continues with its relentless vendetta against the company.
Nigeria's DStv subscribers already benefit from some of the best pay-TV consumer regulations in Africa but that isn't enough for the FCCPC, formerly known as Nigeria's Consumer Protection Council.
The Nigerian government continues to wage war against originally South African started companies as well as other foreign companies, including airlines who find it very and increasingly difficult to do business in the West-African country that has seen its struggling economy falter.
Since Nigeria on paper is so-called "free market" economy, the Nigerian court found against the Consumer Protection Council who wanted to prevent MultiChoice Nigeria from hiking DStv and GOtv subscription fees and wanted the right to prescribe to MultiChoice Nigeria as a private company what prices it can and can't ask.
With an apparent chip on its shoulder and after having raided MultiChoice Nigeria's offices in the past, the FCCPC keeps going after MultiChoice Nigeria and on Friday issued MultiChoice Nigeria Limited with a "final order", again demanding that the pay-TV company must establish and introduce some ridiculous and extremely costly operational must-do's.
In the so-called "final order" the FCCPC director-general Babatunde Irukera on Friday again instructed MultiChoice to allow Nigerian DStv subscribers to be entitled to "temporarily suspend" their DStv subscriptions for "no less than 3 times" per year, each for a period of up to 14 days.
The clueless FCCPC appears uninformed about how traditional pay-TV and commercial business works and that allowing DStv subscribers to switch off their DStv and not paying for it for at least 45 days per year each will dramatically increase the price for these and all other DStv and GOtv subscribers.
The FCCPC also demands that MultiChoice runs "24-hour call centres, 7 days a week" including weekends and public holidays as if the private pay-TV company is a Nigerian hospital or emergency or ambulance service. The FCCPC demands that calls to these call centres should be free.
"The court granted interim injunctive relief prohibiting MultiChoice from proceeding with the conduct that the Commission alleged constituted bad faith," Babatunde Irukera writes.
"MultiChoice failed to obey the injunctive order of the court, preferring instead to challenge the validity and proprietary of the order and powers of the court. The court order became the subject of appeal to the Court of Appeal."
In its "final order", the FCCPC demands that "MultiChoice shall, subject to prevailing regulatory and telecommunications industry practices and constraints, commence toll-free technical and customer service helplines" and that "the company shall also operate fully-resourced call centres 24 hours, and 7 days a week, including public holidays".
MultiChoice is also ordered to "create multiple and additional social media platforms where subscribers can easily upload proof of payment when service is not restored immediately after payment".
This is in addition to providing DStv subscribers with the option of suspending their subscriptions "no less than three times annually for up to 14 days in each instance".
MultiChoice must ensure that all DStv subscribers have free and automatic access to the local free-to-air TV channels and must "carry out periodic customer sensitisation about changes made".
The FCCPC warned MultiChoice that it "shall be under the commission's monitoring for a period of 12 months of this order and shall provide prior notice of proposed changes or modifications of material terms and conditions of service that are the subject of this order."
