NAIROBI, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The 2023 Consumers International Global Congress opened in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, on Wednesday to promote consumer rights across the world.
The three-day conference held under the theme of "Building a Resilient Future for Consumers" brought together delegates from over 100 countries composed of senior government officials, international organizations officials, consumer rights advocates and scholars to review the status of consumer protection across the world.
In his opening remarks, Rigathi Gachagua, Kenya's deputy president, said that the conference was a platform for dialogue, exchange of ideas, good practices and forging partnerships in global consumer protection frameworks.
Gachagua noted that Kenya is one of the Africa countries having made substantive progress in the establishment and implementation of e-transaction laws, cybercrime laws, and data protection privacy laws to protect consumers in the physical and digital spaces.
"The global connectedness of the physical and digital marketplace makes harmonization of the consumer protection laws vital for the unified application of regulations in the different jurisdictions," he added.
Helena Leurent, the director-general of Consumers International, which is the world confederation of consumer rights groups, said that consumers around the world should have access to information to enable them to make informed choices about the most appropriate goods and services to purchase in the marketplace.
Willard Mwemba, the chief executive officer of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Competition Commission, said that African countries are at different stages and levels of consumer protection.
Mwemba said that there is a need for enhanced market inspection and surveillance to remove unsafe products from the market.
Shaka Kariuki, the chairman of the Competition Authority of Kenya, said that his organization has taken major steps to protect consumers, especially in the financial services sector.
"Some of our interventions include ensuring fees and charge transparency in digital financial services for transactions conducted through the mobile phone," he said.
