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African Competition Forum (ACF)

The African Competition Forum (ACF) is an informal network of African national and multinational competition authorities. The principal objective of the ACF is to promote the adoption of competition principles in the implementation of national and regional economic policies of African countries.

To realise its objectives, the ACF engages in the following activities :

                • Encouraging and assisting African countries that do not have a competition law to adopt one.
                • Helping to build the capacity of existing and future African competition agencies and increasing the awareness of the benefits of implementing competition laws among governments, the general public and stakeholders.

 

The ACF was launched in 2011 in Nairobi, with 19 African competition agencies and one African regional body attending the launch. The Steering Committee comprised of 11 members: Kenya was the first Chair, with South Africa as Vice Chair and Senegal as Secretary.

Today the ACF has 34 members: 30 national competition agencies and 4 regional agencies as members. South Africa was elected as the Chair, with Mauritius as Vice Chair and Senegal as the Secretary.

Membership

The operational framework  of the ACF requires agencies that want to be members to complete an application form confirming that they subscribe to the objectives of the ACF. The  membership is then approved by the Steering Committee.

At the last Biannual Conference in September 2014, there were 32 members (de facto, no official record was kept) and now, 34 members. The Outreach has been ongoing with Angola, Nigeria, Liberia and Niger. The latest member to join the ACF is the Eastern Africa Community (EAC).

The African Competition Forum (ACF) invites African countries to join and share information and experiences.

ACF Structure

  • Chair           : South Africa
  • Vice-Chair : Mauritius
  • Secretary    : Senegal

Membership List

  • Benin
  • Egypt
  • Ethiopia
  • The Gambia
  • Kenya
  • Tanzania
  • Tunisia
  • Zambia

Operational Structure

ACF Funding

Since 2014 the ACF has been entirely member-funded. For more information please do contact the Secretariat

 

ACF Activities

  • ACF organised capacity buildings
  • ACF Workshops in Mergers and Cartels
  • Side line meetings at International gatherings (ICN, OECD & UNCTAD)

Partnerships

World Bank

  • ACF / World Bank report
  • Launch of report at ICN annual conference Singapore

OECD

  • Provided venue and interpretation services in Paris for capacity building the day before the OECD Global Forum.

International Competition Network (ICN)

  • ICN is placing emphasis on outreach to younger agencies in developing economies
  • Regional initiatives like ACF are important in this regard
  • ICN Agency Effectiveness Working Group held its annual workshop in Botswana in March 2016 and asked the ACF to co-host
  • SA is a member of the ICN Steering Group and uses this forum to raise profile of ACF and increase participation of ACF members in ICN events as speakers etc

BRICS Competition Authorities

  • The 4th BRICS International Competition Conference was hosted by South Africa on 10 – 13 November 2016
  • CCSA recognised the importance of strong participation of competition authorities from Africa at the conference
  • 30 African delegates attended from 18 ACF members
  • SA is a member of the ICN Steering Group and uses this forum to raise profile of ACF and increase participation of ACF members in ICN events as speakers etc
  • A BRICS – African competition authorities meeting was held on 11 November
  • Representatives of Brazil, Russia and the three Chinese competition agencies met ACF members and discussed future cooperation

UNCTAD

  • CCSA Deputy Commissioner spoke on behalf of the ACF Chair at the 14th UNCTAD Ministerial in Nairobi on 20 July 2016 in a session on the role of competition policy in regional integration
  • ACF Steering Committee members were canvassed on the content of the answers to be provided during the discussion
  • The ACF offered general inputs on the topic and gave specific examples of the ACF’s experience in this area
  • The conference was a good platform to raise the profile of the ACF and for the ACF to contribute to the discourse on regional integration and development in the continent.

US FTC and DOJ

  • CCSA Deputy Commissioner spoke on behalf of the ACF Chair at the 14th UNCTAD Ministerial in Nairobi on 20 July 2016 in a session on the role of competition policy in regional integration. Both of these US agencies have provided training through the USAID funded regional training workshops.
  • National governments continue to fund the attendance of officials from competition agencies in ACF activities

Publications and Research

Publications

African Competition Forum Newsletter: 2nd edition
African Competition Forum: Competition challenges in African construction markets – A study across East and Southern Africa
African Competition Newsletter: 1st edition

 

Research

  • ACF / World Bank Group: “Breaking Down Barriers”
  • In 2014, ACF and World Bank Group started working on joint project to examine the status of competition frameworks and implementation in Africa
  • In April 2016, the report was released at the ICN’s annual conference in Singapore
  • Interview conducted with Chair of ACF and WBG on CNBC Africa on 16 August 2016.
  • ACF cross-country sector study: April 2016 – April 2017