Ghana: International organization asks gov. to prioritize competition law

The Ghana Office of the Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International has urged the Government of Ghana and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) to make a Competition Regime a legislative priority for 2018.

Mr Appiah Kusi Adomako, Country Coordinator of CUTS Ghana, who made the call at a Policy Dialogue to mark on World Competition Day in Accra on Tuesday, December 4, therefore, urged businesses and the private sector to work closely together to ensure the development of a Competition Policy and the passage of a Competition Law for Ghana.

Mr Adomako underscored the importance of a Competition Policy and Law in creating a level playing field in the marketplace, adding that a Competition Regime benefitted both producers and consumers. He also urged regulators approving mergers and acquisitions transactions to give only conditional approvals if the merged entities would lessen competition.

Ms Frances Van-Hein Sackey, Head of Legal Department, Bank of Ghana (BoG), noted that Ghana had not been able to adopt competition laws over the years for the purposes of encouraging companies to offer consumer goods and services on more favorable terms and that the closest Ghana came to that was the enactment of the Protection against Unfair Competition Act (2000).

She said notwithstanding the progress made in mergers and acquisitions in the banking and financial sector in the absence of a competition law, a functional competition regime for Ghana was an essential national requirement.