Course Introduction and Background

• Consumers are key players in the market place and their consumption behaviours hugely determine the level of activity in an economy.
• The advancement in technology has allowed consumer to have access to information and widen their choices on consumption which is a positive development both to the consumers and business.
• It has also increased competition as agile small players have emerged taking advantage of the dominants of social media in marketing and distributing products and services.
• However, the intensification of competition has seen consumers being prone to abuse by some business players through misinformation, disinformation, selling of expired or even harmful products among others concerns.
• In order to counter for these negative impacts, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe lobbied for the establishment of the Consumer
• Protection Act [Chapter 14:14], No. 5/2019 which was gazetted in 2019.  As one of the tools to ensure that the consumer rights are enforced, the CCZ has set up an Academy in collaboration with the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) who is the technical partner.
• The main purpose of the CCZ Academy is to unpack fully the CPA and ensure that both the business and the consumers are aware of their rights and responsibilities in the market place. Issues of data protection, cybercrimes, sustainable consumption, health and safety, conciliation and arbitration and financial inclusion will be covered in the course among other topics.

2. Learning/Delivery Methodology

• The hybrid -instructor-led training is delivered using a blended learning approach and comprises presentations, guided sessions of theory and practical exercise, discussion group work.
• All facilitation and course materials will be offered in English. The participants should be reasonably proficient in English.