Malawi Competition and Fair Trading Commission rolls out business clinics
The Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) has noted that lack of knowledge on fair and unfair business practices was putting the rights of consumers at risk in the country.
The organisation’s executive director Charlotte Wezi Malonda made the remarks in Blantyre at the opening of a countrywide business clinic initiative aimed at defining what constitutes fair and unfair business practices in Malawi.
Malonda said CFTC will conduct business clinics in the three major cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu starting February 23 2015.
“Malawians continue to be subjected to unfair trade practices, with most businesspeople refusing to reduce prices of their goods and services in light of an improved economic performance. So, the clinics will seek to define what constitutes unfair trading, supply of defective and counterfeit products and misleading advertising,” she said.
“This will be an opportunity for participants to the business clinics to ask any questions they may have pertaining to the work of the CFTC generally and specifically relating to competition and consumer issues affecting the operations of their sector,” added Malonda.
She said CFTC will also take the participants through the process of filing an application, information required, how the assessment is undertaken, engaging the commission in a negotiated settlement and how to take a company through a compliance programme.
“Some of the topics to be covered during the business clinics include merger control, notice of investigations and consumer protection,” she said.
During the clinics, CFTC will meet people from the telecommunications, transport, financial, construction and tobacco industries, among others.
CFTC is an autonomous government agency with a mandate to regulate, monitor, control and prevent acts or behaviours which would adversely affect competition and fair trading in Malawi.
so malawi has a commission of this sort ? Y have they set a blind eye towards Malawi airlines that is charging unfairly high prices?
Make sure fairness is from all the angles by paying taxes as well as almost all Malawian business people are defaulters and not compliance with taxation which is desperately required to run the country. SO THIS TIME DON’T BE ONE SIDED AND SELFISH… this initiation and hardworking to make this group must be “fair” as you are making noise of.
Good initiative but minimise on the appetite for Travel.
This is a welcome development, Malonda keep it up! extend your outreach awareness campaign prog to districts and town centres. There too need fair trading.