WINDHOEK – Consumers will be relieved to learn that the Namibia Competition Commission has announced plans to take on the retail sector in an effort to ensure that consumers are not over charged for items such as poultry, meat, dairy products, and cement.
The commission also wants to ensure that members of the public understand their rights, as well as the avenues of recourse available to them and the protections granted in the competition policies and laws of Namibia. The price monitoring is expected to commence at the end of this month. “In terms of its price mandate, the commission is putting in place price monitoring mechanisms to understand the retailers’ pricing strategies and also to understand the pricing trends of sensitive, but economically protected sectors such as cement, diary, meat, and poultry. There is still a lack of understanding of the competition policy and law in Namibia and the work of the NaCC does not appear to be well known among the public, but this will change,” said the commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Mihe Gaomab II. Currently the commission does not explicitly monitor retail prices, but can look and may decide to investigate complaints pertaining to excessive pricing.
“The price monitoring function’s ultimate objective is to assess and appreciate selected industries’ cost and production structures, in order to ensure that appropriate policy input is made to the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s decisions,” said Gaomab II. Although retail price monitoring has been singled out as a focus area for this year, the commission says its general focus is to look at competition in the country, in line with the 4th National Development Plan and Vision 2030. The commission says it has noted that there is an abundance of South African retail giants across Southern Africa and in particular in Namibia. “The retail sector is, as a result of the Wal-Mart Supreme Court challenge won in March 2013, on a condition of putting in place a supplier development programme for Wal-Mart,” it says. The commission further says the competition law also caters for small businesses like SMEs, in case they are treated unfairly by large firms in Namibia. The commission has also launched a research study to be informed on the issues and challenges facing the retail sector and how it relates to the overall commercial environment, taking into account automotive sales, food, and manufactured products. There would be a stakeholder workshop to discuss the retail sector study in order to seek solutions to the challenges besetting the sector. “It is imperative that the public has a fair understanding of the benefits of competition and as such provide broad-based support for a strong competition policy. Therefore, competition advocacy, whose ultimate aim is the development of a competition culture, is one of the strategic focus areas of the commission,” Gaomab II says.
Although Namibia does not currently have any existing consumer protection legislation, the Ministry of Trade and Industry has embarked on the process of creating a law that would protect consumers from over priced goods and services. This process is being undertaken by the consumer protection subdivision in the ministry and would naturally involve the formulation of a national policy and thereafter the relevant legislation and institutional framework. Many Namibians say they don’t see the benefits of infant industry protection, which protects local products from less costly products from outside the country. However, Minister of Trade and Industry, Calle Schlettwein, recently defended infant industry protection, saying it promotes local value addition and job creation. The minister said the protection was performance-based and that competition is still allowed through limited imports.
*Additional reporting by Edgar Brandt
By Desie Heita