CCA, BNPC collaborate on research

Competition and Consumer Authority ( CCA) has partnered with Botswana National Productivity Centre ( BNPC) to strengthen its research capacity.

Signing the Memorundum of Understanding ( MoU) on Tuesday, CCA Legal Services Director, Kesego Segokgo explained that the integration of markets has put pressure on the Authority to put in place robust research tools to unearth and address obstacles and barriers that impede effective competition and competitiveness of economic sectors. “This is in realisation that increased productivity and economic growth can only be realised by competitive markets.”

He highlighted that the World Bank Report of 2016, revealed that Botswana’s sectors, particularly the manufacturing sectors, are characterised by concentrated structures as shown by the prevalence of monopolistic, duopolistic and Oligopolistic structures. The Global Competitiveness Reports have also reiterated the findings by the World Bank, by consistently indicating that the level of competition in Botswana is very weak as shown by concentrated structures.

“Such structures are a cause for concern because they are prone to high prices, lack of innovation and little growth. As strategic partners in enhancing productivity, it should be in our interest to establish factors that influence such structures, with a view to advocating and adopting appropriate measures to address such,” said Segokgo. For her part, CCA Policy and Research Manager, Bonyana Ndubiwa said both parties have an obligation to unearth and address potential barriers that can impede the competitiveness of businesses. She said the partnership comes after heads of African states, including Botswana, signed an agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area which creates a single market to facilitate trade between African countries. This implies that companies could freely operate across borders, and could freely import and export their goods and services to any market in Africa. She said although such a development is welcome, it poses a serious challenge to the local industries because only those industries that possess a competitive advantage will be able to withstand strong competition from other African companies. “Therefore, it is high time that industries review their processes, and business strategies. It is time that they cut down costs and improve their efficiencies in order to stay in the game.” BNPC Acting General Manager, Teedzani Majaule highlighted that the objective of the MOU is mainly to leverage on each other’s complementarities. These include sharing of information of research findings that have a bearing on productivity and competitiveness, joint policy briefs and advocacy programmes pertaining to constraints on competition, regional and international competitiveness.

He said they intend to improve Botswana’s competitiveness through this partnership. “BNPC and CCA are key strategic institutions in driving Botswana’s transformational agenda. We have seen and recognize the growing need to continuously engage the Competition & Consumer Authority as the main consumer protection agency in the economy.” Through the MoU, the two parastatals will share information of findings of studies/ reports that have a bearing on competitiveness including IMD Reports, Productivity Statistic Reports, Global Competitiveness and Doing Business reports and among others, share coordination of preparations for sector studies in areas of common interest, to ensure extensive coverage of factors affecting competitiveness such as Joint development of questionnaires. “It is my sincere hope that we can demonstrate such value with the passage of time and even build on to enhance our results,” said Majaule.