On Wednesday, 7 October 2020, The European Union Delegation to Malawi and the Malawi Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) launched a 2-year Technical Assistance Support project in Enhancement of Competition and Consumer Protection.

On one hand, the project will support CFTC’s implementation of legal, regulatory and systems reforms that will contribute to enhancing competition and promoting fair trading practices in the country. On the other hand, the project will enhance the capacity of the CFTC and allow for various consultations with all stakeholders across the country.

Speaking at the launch of the project, EU Acting Head of Cooperation Jose Medina-Navarro said the EU believes that open, competitive and fair markets are essential to create a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem, which can spur growth, create employment opportunities and meet the aspirations of Malawians. He said “as a relatively young institution, the CFTC faces various challenges, in particular, when it comes to the enforcement of competition and consumer protection law and with this project, the EU wishes to contribute to addressing those challenges in an integrated way”.

The main objective of this project is to enhance the CFTC’s legal and technical capacity to enforce competition and fair trading principles by business enterprises in all sectors of the economy.

Some of the key outputs of the project include:

• Development of an information management system (IMS) resulting in automation of the Commission’s operations including: digitized submission and processing of complaints on competition and consumer violations; automated application for authorization of potentially anticompetitive business conducts; and integration of the Commission’s IMS to other relevant regulatory agencies and stakeholders;
• Review of inconsistent sectoral laws; and aligning them to the competition and consumer protection law and policy;
• Enhanced market regulation and monitoring through: market studies, regular market enquiries and market surveillances;
• Enhanced advocacy and awareness on competition and consumer protection law and policy, through stakeholder sensitization activities

The project will have a maximum duration of twenty-four (24) months, and is expected to commence on 30th October 2020.