Thabiso Nxumalo
As the world commemorates Consumer Rights Day on March 15, 2022, consumers have been advised to practice caution as the rise in use of digital financial services has brought along risks that may pose financial loses which in turn have potential to trigger mental health problems which might be fatal.
World Consumer Rights Day is a day set aside to raise global awareness about consumer rights, needs and celebrating the day is a chance to demand that rights of consumers are respected and protected.
It is also a chance to protest against market abuses and social injustices which undermine those rights and this year’s commemorations were held under the theme ‘Fair Digital Financial Services’.
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ), Regional manager for Masvingo, Ndumiso Mgutshini said digital technologies have become game-changers in modern day global consumer transactions by reshaping payments, lending, insurance, and wealth management becoming key enablers, a must to every consumer to utilise for faster efficient technologies replacing brick-and-mortar financial services.
However, digital financial services have brought a rise in phenomenons such as hacking, fraud, loss of employment and false advertising amongst other risks.
“The world over is evolving digitally and so are services and consumers, as much as we are impressed and happy with technological advances that have made transacting easy, there are downsides to this, in the form of loss of employment, high cost of data, connectivity issues, fraudulent activities such as false advertising, scams and hacking resulting in consumers being duped after giving out their personal details leading to some mental implications.
“We are working with and engaging regulatory authorities to come up with solutions as to best safeguard the consumers from these perils,” said Mgutshini.
Rhodene resident, Thomas Chitima said he has at countless times lost money to mobile money service providers and in most cases failed to recover it and given run-arounds and is very happy to be educated about consumer rights.
“I have lost money on numerous occasions on these digital financial services, there was a time I had to pay someone twice because the first-time money was deducted from my account but did not reflect on theirs and when this happens you get into altercations with people and when you take your matter to these financial institutions, they just tell you that they will rectify the issue but on many occasions they do not.
“I am grateful to hear there are organizations that fight for us in such issues and I will urge them to reach out to us more often to conscientise us on this because I know I am not the only one who was in the dark,” said Chitima.
This year’s commemorations were held in Harare at Rainbow Towers.
