Interview highlights
Q1: Looking at the various developmental challenges Africa faces, is there a moral obligation for African markets to be competitive?
Prishnee Armoogum emphasized the important nexus between competitive markets and economic development as a driving force for market economies in ensuring the following benefits:
Efficient allocation of resources
Lower prices
Better choices or variety of choices and
Innovation.
She also highlighted that the following challenges on the African continent underscore the need for competitive markets:
The continent consists of countries with varying levels of development - low income, middle income, and high-income countries.
World Bank predictions of declining economic growth.
High inflation and food crisis: Studies have shown that in Africa the prices of essential products are 20% higher than global prices.
Political instability.
Barriers to entry in markets.
Concentrated market structures prevailing on the African continent with state owned firms owning high market shares in particular sectors.
Q2: Have there been better outcomes for citizens of Mauritius from competition enforcement in the country.
The speaker highlighted that the Competition Commission of Mauritius since its establishment in 2009 has been involved in 21 collusive agreement cases, 14 abuse of dominance cases, 9 merger investigation. And has gotten more than 300 enquiries so far. Various market studies been carried out in different sectors such as in retail, telecommunications, and agriculture (including fertilizers). These are sectors that make a huge impact on the citizens of Mauritius.
In general, people have more choices, markets are evolving and due to the work of the competition commission, firms are also changing the way they operate. The Competition Commission of Mauritius also provides advice to public bodies in Mauritius, these recommendations may potentially have positive market outcomes
Q3: On the issue of bid-rigging in tender processes, what collaborative efforts by competition authorities can ensure competitiveness in their public procurement processes?
The speaker highlighted 3 phases for ensuring competitiveness in public procurement processes.
The first phase is networking where competition enforcers identify persons in different government parastatals to engage with on these issues.
The second phase is conducting advocacy workshops that involves the training of public officials to identify potential anticompetitive issues that may be arise when going through different bids.
Third phase is collaboration. Formal collaborations with relevant institutions can allow sharing of information. For example, the Competition Commission of Mauritius works closely with the Public Procurement Office of Mauritius and has conducted several training workshops within public institutions.
Q4: Do you see an increased uptake of artificial intelligence, data science and analytics in competition enforcement in Mauritius, and generally on the African continent?
Prishnee Armoogum noted that competition authorities around the world are currently coming up with artificial intelligence, data science and analytics tools for:
Competition assessments
Market power analysis
Market definitions
Detection/screening of cartels
Screening of data in general.
She advised that competition authorities in Africa should begin training staff on the competition assessment of digital markets. However, she noted that the level of development in terms of digitalization differs across economies and that markets in Africa are not yet digitalized. This could impact the extent of uptake of digital analytics in competition enforcement. For example, internet penetration is still low in Africa (at about 40%) compared to the European Union (at over 80%), Mauritius has an internet penetration of above 60%.
Q5: The envisaged supranational AfCFTA Competition Authority would oversee AfCFTA’s competition protocol in the region. What are your initial reactions to having a supranational competition authority in Africa? What should be the first point of call for this authority?
The speaker supports having AfCFTA’s supranational competition authority and sees this as a great opportunity for Africa for the following reasons:
For assessing mega-mergers and cartels
To address cross-border competition issues.
She however raised concerns regarding:
The current lack of integration on the continent e.g., intra-African trade only accounts for 16% compared to other parts of the world with more integration.
Diverse market structures in Africa.
National competition authorities at different stages of enforcement of competition law and
Regional competition authorities (currently 8 of them) at different levels of functionality and how this would tie into AfCFTA’s supranational authorities’ functions.
She advised that AfCFTA’s competition authority focuses on harmonizing the competition protocol across different member states, and with the regional competition authorities.
Q6: On women participation in competition, are there things women should be prepared for when coming into this field. What helps you navigate the competition/antitrust terrain?
Prishnee Armoogum identified three important factors to be considered by women who intend working in the competition space or advancing in their competition careers.
A strong interest in competition law and policy evidenced by a continued desire to learn and passion for economics. She mentioned that the field of competition was one of the few career paths that allows the direct application of economics knowledge and training to work.
Mentorship is important. Mentors can be former research supervisors and competition experts.
Building case experience in the field of competition. This can be gained by working on a diverse range of competition cases, through internship opportunities, and secondments to other competition agencies.
Speaker profile
Prishnee Armoogum is currently an Investigation Officer (Economics) at the Competition Commission in Mauritius and has been in the field of Competition/Antitrust for over 10 years. She has conducted numerous empirical studies assessing the performance of competition authorities and studied the degree of convergence of competition laws in the Southern African region. She was seconded to the Competition Commission of South Africa and has also worked as an intern at the Office of Fair Trading in the UK.
Prior to working in the competition space, she previously worked as a team lead in the private sector and as a part-time lecturer at the University of Technology in Mauritius. She has a PhD in Economics from the University of East Anglia, an MSc in Economics and Financial Management from Middlesex University, and a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Finance from the University of Mauritius.
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