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National Training Workshops (NTW)
April 12-14, 2010, Nigeria
Press Release
Stakeholders Benefit From a Three Day National Training
Workshop on Competition Policy and Law Issues in Nigeria
Nigeria, April 14, 2010
Some
key stakeholders with critical roles to play in competition
reforms in Nigeria from the civil society, government
departments, sector regulators, and the media benefited from
a three day National Training Workshop (NTW) on competition
and law issues organised by CUTS International, Consumer
Empowerment Organisation of Nigeria (CEON) and the Consumer
Protection Council (CPC) of Nigeria at the Rockview Classic
Hotel, Abuja on the 12th -14th April, 2010.
The
training programme covered general issues such as
introduction to competition policy and law, the benefits
from competition policy and law, the interface between
competition policy and sector regulation, as well as
introducing participants to specific issues on competition
enforcement such as horizontal and vertical restraints,
abuse of dominance and unfair trade practices.
The
training was conducted through the assistance of
international resource persons with experience in
competition law enforcement. These included Mr Gerald
Gregory, an expert from the United Kingdom, who is also a
former employee of the Office of Fair Trading; Ms Neo
Chabane, Principal Analyst in the Enforcement and Exemptions
Department under the Competition Commission of South Africa
and Mr Cornelius Dube of CUTS.
There
was an encouraging response from the participants, who could
easily relate the various examples on anticompetitive
practices to what is obtaining in Nigeria at the moment
without a competition law. Examples were given, including
situations where domestic flight operators sit down and
agree on fares to charge and then announce the meeting and
what was agreed in the press without any fear. An example on
tied selling was given where consumers in the soft drinks
market were not allowed to buy only one brand, e.g Coke when
purchasing in bulk but had to also ensure that they mix
bands to include Fanta, etc even when they were not
interested. On the benefits of competition, an example was
given in the mobile sector where Econet and MTN were
refusing calls from consumers to introduce per-second
billing, saying that its not feasible to do so, but since
the entrance of another company, Glo, which was doing
per-second billing, the two are also now doing the same, and
customers are benefiting.
The
media representatives who were trained also promised that
the training programme would mark a turning point as far as
reporting on competition distortions is concerned.
Currently, the focus was largely on consumer issues simply
because they were not aware of competition issues. They
would also expect to get more material on competition issues
from CUTS so that they would constantly refer to it in their
reporting. They would also benefit from regular updates on
international developments in the field of competition, and
they all requested for CUTS to add them to membership of the
Competition Online Forum (COLF).
For more information, please
click here...
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