Botswana: The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mmusi Kgafela, recently met with management from the Competition and Consumer Authority (CCA) to discuss issues of national concern under their custody.
Their Chief Executive Officer, Tebelelo Pule, encouraged the CCA management to be dynamic and embrace mindset change ideals in their enforcement agenda. Kgafela further encouraged the team to have a rigorous stakeholder engagement plan in order to get details on the unfavourable business environment experienced by locals, as this is a dominant topic in different business forums.
Minister Kgafela indicated that the Ministry of Trade and Industry receives a number of complaints from the general public, amongst them community leaders like Members of Parliament who seek the intervention of the Ministry in ensuring that locally owned Companies are prioritized on issues such as Government Procurement Processes.
He also said there is an urgent need to put more protective measures in place for infant industries also to experience the much needed growth.
Areas of discussion included the following, among others:
• Market dominance by foreign owned companies,
• Price fixing by some companies doing business in the country,
• That CCA engage procuring entities to ensure that Invitation to Tender (ITT) do not include unfavourable terms that exclude local companies.
The Minister reminded CCA that as a Government entity, they are tasked with ensuring that there is a conducive environment to conduct business in the country profitably.
Competition and Consumer Authority (CCA) is a parastatal under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. It is responsible for the prevention of and redress of anti-competitive practices in the economy and the removal of constraints on the free play of competition in the market, as well as the protection of consumer rights by means of investigation, prohibition and control of unfair business practices.
