By HELEN ZULU –

THE Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is scheduled to open four new offices in Southern, Central, Luapula and Muchinga by April this year.
CCPC public relations officer, Hanford Chaaba said in an interview that the Commission would open the new outlets in a bid to enhance consumer protection.
Mr Chaaba said the expansion programme aims at addressing unfair trading practices in rural areas, especially that consumers were easily targeted by unscrupulous traders with some selling expired products.
The four offices would be in Livingstone, Kabwe, Mansa and Chinsali were the commission had no physical presence at the moment.
“To address the challenge of presence in the local areas, CCPC has embarked on an expansion programme that will see it open offices in all the 10 provinces by April 2015 and we expecting to open the new branches in April,” Mr Chaaba said.
The CCPC had embarked on reaching as many consumers as possible and sensitise them on their rights.
He hoped that with the opening of offices in all provinces in the country, more cases relating to unfair trade practices would be resolved.
The Commission at the close of 2014 investigated and resolved more than 827 cases bordering on consumer rights violation compared to 338 that were investigated and resolved by the Board in 2013.
The 827 cases handled exceeded the set target of 700 cases due to efforts made by the Commission to serve the public 2013.
“We hope that from the cases we handled and resolved last year, the cases we address will increase due to our presence in the provinces,” he added.