Financial Consumer’s Access to Justice: Considerations towards Adapting Financial Ombudsman Scheme in Ethiopia

Abstract

Access to justice is one of the fundamental human rights of every human being. The Constitution of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia constitutionalizes this right; however this can be ensured when there is an efficient and proper venue to adjudicate grievances. The inherent asymmetric relationship between financial institutions and consumers, and the complexity of financial services or products is a major barrier to easily access justice for financial consumers. One of the mechanisms to overcome such institutional inefficiency is to establish an out-of-court adjudication body, widely called financial Ombudsman. However, in Ethiopia, financial Ombudsman has never been established. This acutely limits consumers’ access to justice. Also, the absence of this institution suggests that the country follows a laissez-faire approach in dealing with issues related to the subject. This article explores dimensions of financial consumers’ access to justice from the Ethiopian perspective. The study employed doctrinal research method to attain the desired end. The major finding of the exploration shows that financial consumers in this country have no access to an independent, efficient, impartial, free-of-cost, and professional out-of-court dispute resolution bodies such as financial Ombudsman to seek remedy for their complaints. Further, the findings shade light on crucial role of the financial Ombudsman for access to justice. Accordingly, adapting this scheme in Ethiopia will be an important alternative to financial consumers in the country. Though adopting such a scheme in Ethiopia may face possible challenges, it can be overcome through applying good design choices of the scheme. Finally, the results from the exploration indicated that the Policy landscape in this country has enabling environment on which interested bodies can capitalize on to adapt financial Ombudsman scheme.