Consumers to get more protection

NAMIBIAN consumers can look forward to new laws that will protect their interests.

Consumer protection will no longer be a dirty word in Namibian business circles, as two bills are in the pipeline to protect Namibians from shady business practices.
In addition, the Competition Commission recently put into law by Government is expected to be operational by next month, once a secretary and a chairman are chosen.
This is according to the Director of Commerce in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Edward Kamboua.
He said interviews for the posts were finished about two weeks ago.
Kamboua said competition and consumer protection are interrelated, meaning the commission could already start addressing some of the problems consumers are facing.
For example, lack of competition in certain business sectors can be looked at by the commission, which would then benefit the consumer in terms of prices.
Another important piece of legislation being looked at by the Ministry is a Consumer Protection Bill.
Organisations like the Namibian Consumer Association (NCA) have been calling for such a bill for years.
Michael Gaweseb of the NCA said such an act would look at ‘issues such as unfair contract terms, pricing, regulate marketing practices, the right to return defective products [and] in general to penalise deceitful business practices’.
South Africa recently introduced a comprehensive consumer protection bill and most countries around the world have such legislation.
On the Namibian front, Kamboua acknowledged that the bill is ‘an urgent matter’.
He said a layman’s draft of the bill would be put together over the next two to three months.
To this end the Ministry has brought in an expert on competition matters from Zimbabwe.
The ministry hopes to complete the process by the end of 2010, Kamboua said.
Another bill which is set to bring more regulation to the consumer sector is the Financial Institutions Management and Markets Bill developed by Namfisa.
It will encompass all the sectors under Namfisa’s regulation and bring them together in one law.
The bill will regulate everything from micro-lending to credit arrangements and financial ICT technology.