The Bureau of the Consultative Competition Committee of ERCA met in Banjul, Republic of The Gambia

The Bureau of the ECOWAS Consultative Committee on Competition (CCC) held its  a meeting to discuss the ECOWAS’s position in the context of the ongoing negotiations on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) competition regulations, the development of an action plan for the grant agreement on data collection for ECIS; advocacy and awareness-raising activities, visibility actions for ERCA from the 3^rd  to 4^th June  2025, in Banjul, Republic of The Gambia.

 The meeting brought together Members of the Bureau of the CCC and staff of ERCA to discuss among other things, the ECOWAS’s position in the context of the ongoing negotiations on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) competition regulations, the development of an action plan for the grant agreement on data collection for ECIS; advocacy and awareness-raising activities as well as visibility actions for ERCA.

The Executive Director of ERCA, Dr. Simeon K. Koffi, on behalf of the management of the ECOWAS Commission extended warm greetings to Members for their presence and participation at this important meeting.

He pointed out that the meeting the Bureau is a follow up to the recommendations of the 9^th CCC meeting held in Banjul in November 2024 at which a programme was developed for the Bureau to implement key activities during its four-year tenure. He enjoined Members to engage in frank discussions and deliberations that will reflect the aspirations of ERCA to implement the Community Competition Rules. The goal is to ensure that ECOWAS Competition Framework keeps focused to achieve its desired objectives.

Executive Director highlighted the need for consolidation of the Competition framework within the subregion to align with the AfCFTA processes and ensure that ECOWAS as a Regional Economic Community stand on a common position with regards to regulation on competition within AfCFTA.

The Chairperson of CCC, Dr. Talime Abe, on the other hand, thanked other members of the Bureau for attending the meeting. He commended the Government of The Gambia for the facilities made available and ECOWAS and ERCA for convening this meeting. He pointed out CCC Bureau held a meeting on the margins of the 9th CCC meeting in November 2024 to follow up on issues affecting various member states to safeguard against anti-Competitive behavior in the region.

Dr. Abe called on all member states to play their respective roles to ensure that we come up with

concrete actions that can be implemented e.g. advocacy, capacity building, market operations, collection and analysis of data in member states etc. This is a responsibility of the Members of the CCC is tasked with, arriving at tangible decisions that will be shared with other member states to strengthen our Community Competition Rules. ERCA and CCC Bureau should ensure that other members of the CCC are kept abreast with what the Bureau does to promote competition and Consumer Protection in the subregion.

The meeting noted the importance of data for competition evaluation and urged Member states to work together to collect data as the analysis of such data will significantly support ERCA’s work with investigations and implored Member states to provide such requested data to effectively address anticompetitive activities in our subregion,

In addition, the meeting underscored the need for regular market studies to have a better understanding of the market.

The meeting recommended for Member States to conduct at least one market study annually.