ECOWAS-ERCA to hold a 3-days technical meeting in Senegal
Emmanuel Daudu
The ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority (ERCA) will hold a technical meeting on a draft
communication plan which is aimed at ensuring greater visibility of the ERCA’s activities.
According to the Executive Director, ERCA, Dr. Simeon Koffi in an electronic statement to journalists during the weekend stated that the ERCA’s Communication Plan review is scheduled to take place in Dakar, Senegal from 29-31 March 2023.
“Participants are expected to review the draft document and provide input during the Working Group
meeting which aims to pool the contributions of the invited experts and recommend avenues for
possible improvement”.
Retrospectively, in 2008, ECOWAS adopted a Regional Competition Policy and in the same vein, the ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority (ERCA) was established to implement the policy. The objective of this regional initiative was to support and promote open competition within the ECOWAS region, including the protection of consumers’ economic interests, through the implementation of Community Competition Rules.
The awareness, information, and advocacy activities carried out during the second half of 2021 in eleven (11) Member States revealed a low level of knowledge of the regional competition mechanism and the ERCA among the majority of national stakeholders. Having actually started its activities in 2019, the relative operational infancy of the ERCA could partly explain the low awareness of its existence and activities. In order to strengthen dialogue and information sharing between all stakeholders, and to raise awareness of this mechanism for promoting competition within ECOWAS, the ERCA has decided to strengthen its communication activities.
Thus, the ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority (ERCA), with the support of a regional expert designed a Communication Action Plan, which is intended to be proactive, for improving knowledge of the regional competition framework and visibility of its actions in ECOWAS Region.
This plan should include information and awareness-raising activities that would significantly improve knowledge of ECOWAS and ERCA’s competition policy among all private and public economic actors operating in the regional market as well as among consumers.
In 2014, the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government designated the Republic of Gambia as the headquarters of the ERCA. The official launch of the ERCA took place in May 2019, following a meeting of the Technical Committee of Trade and Competition Experts in Banjul, The Gambia.
The ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority was therefore established to implement the regional competition rules adopted by the ECOWAS Authority in 2008. These rules essentially promote, maintain and encourage competition while improving the economic efficiency of regional production, trade and business.
ECOWAS is a regional economic space of 15 West African Member states, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
The ERCA is headed by an Executive Director, assisted by two Directors and the staff necessary for its proper functioning. It has the following divisions; Mergers and acquisitions, Analysis of competition and economic research, Law, investigation, compliance and enforcement, Communications and advocacy, Administration and human resources, and Finance.
The ERCA’s Consultative Competition Committee (CCC) is a thirty (30) member committee composed of two (2) competition experts from each Member state appointed for a four (4) year term. The CCC acts as an advisory body to the ERCA in the area of competition and consumer protection. In particular, the CCC: Reviews and makes recommendations on all draft policies, guidelines, directives, instruments, rules and regulations submitted to it by the ERCA; Makes recommendations requesting ERCA to undertake studies or research relevant to the formulation of competition and consumer protection policies; and
Evaluates reports on the status of implementation of competition and consumer protection principles and policies in the region submitted to it by the ERCA, intending to make the necessary recommendations.
The CCC is assisted by a Bureau elected from among its members, consisting of the Chairperson, the Vice Chairperson, and three (3) Rapporteurs.
