THISDAY, Nigeria, January 15, 2010
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and other stakeholders Wednesday in Abuja, spoke on the need for a reliable competition law enforcement to guide against the reckless abuse of consumers rights.
This was stated at the on going regional training workshop on Competition Law Enforcement organised by the Consumers Empowerment Organization of Nigeria (CEON) in conjunction with the Centre for Competition Investment and Economic Regulation to sensitize government agencies and individuals on the need to enact laws that curtail anti-consumers rights.
While declaring the seminar open, the Coordinator General, Adedeji Babatunde said, “the purpose of the workshop is to equip participants on the implementation from government agencies from selected countries of West Africa with necessary skills and knowledge on competition issues”
He further urged participants to explore opportunities of the workshop to acquire necessary skills needed that would enable them to contribute effectively towards evolving effective national competition regimes in their respective countries.
On his part, the ECOWAS representative and Programme Officer Trade and Competition, Dr Seydou Sacko observed that, ECOWAS was poised to encourage member countries to enact enabling laws that will nip in the bud cases of anti-consumers rights, the best to start is by enforcement of competition laws, this will also lead to more economic growth in the sub-region”, he said.
Also, representative of CUTS International, Rijit Sengupta stated that, “the workshop is to brainstorm the relevance of competition laws as regard global trade”, adding that: the West African region must brace with cogent laws to will protect consumers as well as promote economic growth”.