ECOWAS Participates in 26th West African Economic and Monetary Union Advisory Committee on Competition

The ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority (ERCA) participated in the 26th session of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) Competition Advisory Committee, which took place from 13th to 17th June 2022 at Royal Hôtel in Bissau, Republic of Guinea Bissau. Ably represented by Dr Yaouza Ouro-Sama, Head of Division, Legal, Investigation, Compliance and Enforcement, ERCA attended the meeting of UEMOA CCC for the first time. This development was part of the collaborative effort of ERCA and UEMOA in the field of competition.

The purpose of the session was to consider, in consultation with members of the CCC, complaints relating to abuse of dominance and anti-competitive practices, applications for negative clearance on proposed acquisition of the share capital of companies, final reports of investigation conducted in several Member States of UEMOA, among others. After the opening ceremony and setting up of the bureau, as well as a reminder of the Rules of Procedure of the CCC, the participants commenced review of reports in view of the subsequent adoption of investigation reports, finalization of draft decisions to be submitted to the decision-making bodies, and presentation of new referrals and status of ongoing cases. For confidential reasons, the names, sectors, and countries of the parties involved were undisclosed.

The reason behind ERCA’s participation lies not only in UEMOA and ECOWAS inter-institutional monitoring of their respective competition-related policies, programs, and projects but also in the need for ERCA to capitalize on UEMOA’s experiences that span more than two decades. ERCA and the UEMOA Commission have updated participants on the status of their collaboration and on the finalization, and subsequent signature, of the Cooperation Agreement between the two institutions. The session continued till the 17th of June 2022, which was the closing date of the 26th session of UEMOA Competition Advisory Committee.

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