a tripartite report - Unctad

ZAMBIA
therefore leads with the Board’s support (Energy
Regulation Board); (iii) in cases of mergers
in the pensions and insurance sector, these
vide
for that; the Commission however always
requests the Authority to comment and give its
views on such mergers (Pensions and Insurance
Authority); and (iv) the engagement between
the Bank and the Commission is satisfactory; the
Bank often refers cases to the Commission for
investigation; in merger control, there is a realization
that even though the Bank and the Commission
have concurrent jurisdiction, the Bank is
only concerned over the protection of depositors
while the Commission looks at lessening of
competition in the relevant market; a merger of
plemented
if it gets the authority of both regulators
(Bank of Zambia).
The Commission has negotiated Memoranda of
Understanding (MoUs) on concurrent jurisdiction
on competition matters with some of the
sector regulators with competition functions in
accordance with the provisions of section 43 of
the new Act. The MoU with the energy regulator
was signed in September 2011, while that with
the ICT regulator was signed in October 2011.
The MoUs with the pensions and insurance regulator
and with the Bank of Zambia are in the
The MoUs cover the following areas: (i) basis of
Agreement (that the agreement is entered into
in order to establish the manner in which the
parties will interact with each other in respect
of the investigation, evaluation and analysis of
mergers and acquisition transactions and complaints
involving anti-competition practices);
(ii) investigations (that the parties may under
certain circumstances and at the request of either
party assist each other to carry out investigations);
(iii) restrictive practices complaints
(handling of complaints where the parties have
concurrent jurisdiction, and where there is no
such jurisdiction); (iii) application for approval
in respect of particular transactions; (iv) establishment
of joint Working Committee (to manage
and facilitate cooperation and consultation
in respect of matters dealt with by each party
in terms of the agreement); (v) sharing of re-
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sources; (vi) exchange of information; and (vii)
Other Statutory Bodies without competition
functions that were interviewed during the fact-
velopment
Agency (ZDA) and the Citizens Economic
Empowerment Commission (CEEC) also
indicated a great wish to cooperate with the
Commission. ZDA cooperates with the Commission
in the area of privatization of State enterprises,
and is prepared to extend that cooperation
in the area of promotion of micro, small and
medium enterprises. CEEC is prepared to cooperate
with the Commission in consumer educa-
in all the nine Provinces in the country.
Even though sector regulators that have competition
functions are prepared to cooperate with
protection and welfare. For example PIA advised
that it deals with a lot of service providers in the
pensions and insurance sector who are abusing
consumers, most of the affected consumers not
knowing whether and how they can submit their
complaints to the Commission. The Authority
would therefore want to collaborate more with
the Commission on consumer protection in the
sector. The Bank of Zambia also advised that it is
concerned over predatory lending in the banking
sector, which is hurting consumers, and is
working with the Commission on the drafting of
a whole chapter on competition and consumer
protection in the Banking and Financial Services
Act.
It is recommended that the Commission’s
MoUs with sector regulators should not only
jurisdiction on competition matters with,
but should also be extended to other
regulators on other areas of cooperation.
The Zambia Information and Communications
Technology Authority (ZICTA) at the interview
visit to Zambia raised a concern that even though
a system of consultations with the Commission
was in place before the signing of the MoU between
the two regulators, the Commission in
2010 made an application to the High Court on
ZAMBIA