COUNTERFEITING KILLING OUR INDUSTRIES

AGHANA is said to lose $200 million annually through the importation of counterfeit products into the country. According to a study by the European Union (EU), the products range from building materials, vehicle spare parts, pharmaceuticals, beverages and other consumable items.
For a country making efforts to develop its industrial base, this must certainly come as an unpleasant piece of news. Besides the toll on the economy, the unfair competition local industries or products are subjected to as a result of the importation of the cheap foreign imports raises serious concerns.
Time and again, local industries have complained about the damage cheap foreign imports is wreaking on the industrial sector. Interestingly, a lot of measures introduced at the country’s entry points to check such importation appears to be leaking.
Some individuals, by their selfish acts, are causing the country to be in the throes of an industrial crisis without any regard to the threat the importation of such items poses to human health and life. Indeed, counterfeit products such as pharmaceuticals, vehicle parts, beverages and other consumable items can have serious implications on the health and safety of those who patronise them.
As the nation ponders over the issue, the question that begs answering is: How effective are our regulatory bodies in ensuring that products that come into the country are of the best quality and not just cheap products that would only serve to drive our clock of progress back?
Over the years, institutions such as the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) and the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) have raised the red flags and banned some imported products for failing to meet set standards. It may, therefore, be totally unfair to crucify the regulatory agencies, considering the numerous challenges that they face and also considering the limitations of their mandate in checking the entry of such products.
Yet, there is the need for effective market surveillance to weed out such cheap and counterfeit products. Perhaps, this is one area that we have woefully failed to adequately invest in as a country. It is understandable that faced with a plethora of social and economic challenges, the country will have the tendency to relegate such issues to the background. But need that be the case, especially when it is very critical to the development of the country?
The DAILY GRAPHIC is posing these questions with the view to generating the right debate in order to come up with practical solutions to the challenges. For now, we wish to challenge local industries to take their destinies into their own hands and institute effective market surveillance systems and not necessarily wait for the government to intervene. Working closely with the government, regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies, the local industries can institute measures that can address the issue in a comprehensive manner.
It is also important for consumers to be conscious of the products they patronise and in this regard, consumer awareness programmes can serve a very useful purpose. Thus, it may be helpful for consumer groups to intensify their activities and broaden the scope and membership base in order to make them more vibrant.
For some time now, there have been aggressive campaigns to popularise ‘Made in Ghana’ products with the objective of ensuring that Ghanaians contribute their quota to building local industries and providing the economy with the needed boost. However, it appears that such campaigns have not yielded the desired result.
But that cannot be the end of the matter. We cannot throw up our arms in despair. The DAILY GRAPHIC calls for the repackaging and intensification of the ‘Made in Ghana’ campaign to ensure we all do the right thing.