The National Competition Policy (NCP) of Botswana of 2005 stands as the first comprehensive document to address problems of a competition nature in the economy of Botswana. The NCP addresses itself to commercial activities of the Government and its agents, big or small firms.
For this purpose, there was recognised a need to have a legal instrument that canonised competition principles and rules into a transparent, accountable and autonomous system. It is difficult to separate the word 'competition' from 'fairness', 'equity', 'justice' or even 'transparency'. Following these principles, the Government of the Republic of Botswana enacted the first competition law for the country, i.e. the Competition Act No. 17 of 2009. This was primarily in fulfilment of the NCP recommendation under its paragraph 9.1, which stated that "In order to ensure compliance with and adherence to locally and internationally acceptable anticompetitive business behavior and conduct, Government will formulate a Competition Act, through which competition in the market place will be regulated."
