By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives on Wednesday pushed forward sweeping reforms to Nigeria’s price control regime, as lawmakers approved key bills for second reading amid spirited debate on parliamentary procedure.
Leading debate on the Bill to amend the Price Control Act, Ahmed Munir, declared that the 1977 legislation had become obsolete and ineffective in the face of present-day economic realities. 
“The original intent of the 1977 Act was global, to protect ordinary Nigerians from hoarding, price gouging and artificial scarcity. However, the mechanisms it put in place and the list of commodities it covered are completely out of sync with the economic realities of 2026.
“As it stands today, the Price Control Act is blindly a dead letter law,” he said.
He criticised the existing penalties as “laughably low” and faulted the Act for failing to define essential goods in line with the needs of modern households.
He stressed that the amendment would not amount to a return to rigid price-fixing.
“While inflation has external and structural drivers, we cannot ignore the local menace of unscrupulous middlemen, artificial hoarding and predatory price-fixing by cartels, taking advantage of the vulnerability of our people. The current 1977 Act fails us in two major ways — obsolete penalties and vague and outdated definitions.
“This amendment does not seek a return to archaic, heavy-handed price-fixing, which we know destroys businesses. Rather, it introduces a smart, balanced and realistic regulatory framework.
“This bill is not about suffocating the free market. It is about putting a civilised guardrail on it. It ensures that while businesses make legitimate profits, the desperate situation of our citizens is not weaponised against them by cartels,” Munir argued.
According to him, the proposal will “bring transparency to supply chains and give teeth to the regulatory bodies like the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission”.
He urged colleagues to back what he described as “this vital, people-centred bill.”
When put to a voice vote by the presiding officer, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, the House unanimously adopted the motion and referred it to the Committee on Commerce for further legislative action.
