On 28-30 October 2023, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Consumer Protection Commission, Mr. Lawrence L. Bassie, and Mr. Abdul Kamara, Director of Export Promotion and Regional Integration, Ministry of Trade and Industry, participated in the African Competition Forum (ACF) Biennial Conference on the theme: ‘Fostering Competition for Inclusive Growth and Sustainability in Africa’, an ECOWAS initiative to foster trade among member states, as well as ensure consumer protection.
The African Competition Forum (ACF) is an informal network and multinational competition authority. The principal objective of the ACF is to promote the adoption of competition principles in the implementation of national and regional economic policies of African countries. To realise its objectives, the ACF engages in the following activities:
Encourage and assisting countries that do not have a competition law to adopt one.
Helping to build the capacity of existing and future African competition agencies and increase the awareness of the benefits of implementing competition laws among governments, the general public and stakeholders. The ACF was launched in 2011 in Nairobi. 19 African competition agencies and one African regional body attended the launch. Kenya was the first Chair, with South Africa as Vice Chair and Senegal as Secretary. The steering committee is comprised of 11 members.
Today, the ACF has 34 members: 30 national competition agencies and four regional agencies as members. The first biennial conference was held in South Africa in 2014, where South Africa was elected as the Chair, with Mauritius as Vice Chair and Senegal as the Secretary. South Africa is currently serving two terms of chairmanship.