COMESA Competition Watchdog Calls for Stronger Skills-Sets to Police Complex Regional Markets

October 8, 2026 in Business, Markets, Policy by Editor

COMESA competition chiefs are calling for stronger technical skills and institutional capacity to keep pace with increasingly complex regional markets.

The effectiveness of competition regulation in Africa’s increasingly integrated markets will depend not only on the rules authorities put in place, but also on whether they have the technical expertise to enforce them.

That was the message from Dr Willard Mwemba, Chief Executive Officer of the COMESA Competition and Consumer Commission (CCCC), as competition and consumer authorities from across the region met in Nairobi for their annual case handlers workshop.

The workshop, running from 7 to 9 October 2026, is bringing together officials involved in investigating competition and consumer protection cases as regional markets become more complex.

Mwemba said a trained and capable workforce was fundamental to the success of competition and consumer authorities, particularly as regulators confront increasingly sophisticated cases involving anti-competitive conduct, mergers and consumer violations.

“Building technical expertise and institutional capacity” enables authorities to investigate and address such cases more effectively and efficiently, he said.

The issue is increasingly important for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), where deeper regional integration is expanding the scope of businesses and transactions that can cross national borders.

For regulators, this means that competition problems can no longer always be contained within individual national markets. Mergers, dominant market positions, restrictive business practices and consumer abuses may have effects across several countries, requiring regulators to have both specialised skills and the ability to cooperate across jurisdictions.

Stronger competition institutions, Mwemba argued, ultimately contribute to fairer and more transparent markets, protect consumers and support economic growth.

They also provide an important institutional foundation for regional integration.

Even as it is a technical training exercise, the Nairobi workshop highlights a contemporary challenge facing African regional economic communities: ensuring that regulatory capacity keeps pace with increasingly integrated markets.

Rules governing competition can only be effective when regulators have the economists, lawyers, investigators, analysts and other specialists required to interpret markets and build credible cases.

Mwemba also used the gathering to recognise the contribution of several prominent figures who have helped shape competition law and policy internationally and in Africa.

He proposed the creation of a “Committee of Elders” through which experienced practitioners and scholars could continue transferring their knowledge to a new generation of competition enforcers.

Among those he singled out were Professor Bill Kovacic, Judge Dennis Davis, Dr George Lipimile, Professor Richard Whish, Professor Eleanor Fox and Professor Frederick Jenny.

The tribute reflected a concern that institutional knowledge can be lost as experienced competition practitioners leave active service.

For Africa’s relatively young competition regimes, preserving that knowledge could be as important as recruiting new specialists.

The challenge is particularly relevant as African countries pursue the African Continental Free Trade Area and other forms of regional economic integration. Larger markets can create opportunities for businesses and consumers, but they can also create greater scope for market concentration and cross-border anti-competitive practices.

Effective enforcement will therefore require regulators capable of understanding increasingly sophisticated corporate structures and commercial strategies while working across national boundaries.

The annual case handlers workshop provides one avenue for developing that capability, while Mwemba’s proposed Committee of Elders points to  ensuring that the experience accumulated by the pioneers of competition regulation is passed on rather than lost.