Fake goods invade Ugandan markets

May 08, 2009

BEING a shopper in Uganda is agonising, especially when you have to contend with the stark reality of buying counterfeits instead of genuine products. So infested is the local market with counterfeits, that when it comes to electrical appliances, chances

By Steven Candia
                              
BEING a shopper in Uganda is agonising, especially when you have to contend with the stark reality of buying counterfeits instead of genuine products. So infested is the local market with counterfeits, that when it comes to electrical appliances, chances are that eight out of 10 times you are most likely to buy a counterfeit, according to figures from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UNBS). This includes cables, switches, sockets, extension cables and electronics.

At a meeting at the UNBS offices, Gyavira Musoke, the head of Imports Inspection, said whereas there are no statistics ascertaining the volume of fakes in Uganda, they are abundant in shops and supermarkets. “They are almost everywhere, both in the urban and rural areas,” Musoke said.

The counterfeits, he said, have had ripple effects with the treasury losing revenue through tax evasion and has also compromised safety and health. He drove his point home using the same key to open a bunch of TRI CIRCUIIT padlocks from China. Such a padlock, he said, could not ensure the user’s security.

Additionally, counterfeiters have conspired with some local traders to swamp the market with imitations such as SQNY for the popular SONY, VIMU for Vim, Fair and Fairly for Fair and Lovely, Philibs for Philips and Pansonic or Panasoanic for the popular Panasonic. Such traders hope to ride on established brand names to sell their products.

Also on display were seized “Emkay” extension cables, which Musoke said, are fake but use the same name as the genuine Emkay brand.

“The international standard is that shutters on extension cables should be closed to avoid electrocution, especially of children who may try to fix their fingers in the extension cables,” he says. Musoke added that the bureau has burnt over 100 cartons of such seized extension cables in Kiteezi near Kampala.

Musoke also said whereas the counterfeit extension cables have three terminal top plugs, they only have two thin wires meaning they are not earthed, putting the user at risk of electric shocks or fire, a tragedy that Simon Komakech of Ntinda, a city suburb suffered.

“One weekend, I wanted to clean my carpet using a hoover. I went to a supermarket and bought a 10-metre extension cable at sh18,000. However, when I switched on the hoover, the extension cable just flared,” Komakech says.

But that is not all. The situation is made worse owing also to the presence of substandard products, which Musoke said were not necessarily counterfeits.

There are no known syndicates involved in the trade mostly carried out by individuals who imported small quantities of counterfeits and sneaked them into the country through both the official and unofficial entry points given the porous borders, using ever changing tricks, such as misdeclaration.

“They may claim what is in the consignment is computers yet they are batteries,” Musoke said. He added that most of the counterfeits come from China, end up in places like Kikubo and Kiyembe, popular business hubs in the city, before finding their way to retail shops and upcountry.  According to Musoke, combating the vice is difficult.

Although UNBS operates alongside other agencies such as the Police and the Uganda Revenue Authority, the fight against counterfeits has not been easy, given the weak laws. UNBS has been relying on the UNBS Act, Cap 327 to tackle the vice. The provisions in the Act, experts say, are not comprehensive and the penalties not deterrent enough. But that may soon be history.

The Government is coming up with a number of measures to tackle the problem, among them a new anti-counterfeit law­ and introducing the Pre-export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) to rid the country of substandard products.

Cabinet in Minute 286 (CT-2008) in a meeting of June 26 passed the PVoC and is set to take effect between July and September.

While the Anti-Counterfeit Bill 2007, soon to be tabled before the Parliament will among others give inspectors wider powers to investigate allegations even without a complainant and levy more punitive penalties, the PVoC on the other hand will block all counterfeits from certain known countries from coming into Uganda.

“Under the new law once nabbed with counterfeits, one will lose the goods and will have to pay three times the cost of the genuine product or face imprisonment,” said Musoke.

Sources privy to the PVoC say comprehensive lists of the most counterfeited items and their source countries have been drawn and tendering done for agencies to handle importation from suspected countries.

According to UNBS, products most counterfeited include:
  • cosmetics and hair dye (Kanta)

  • Sanitary pads

  • Toothpaste

  • Foods, especially spices (Royco Mchuzi Mix)

  • Beverages, wines and spirits,

  • Hardware products like cement, shoe polish, ballpoint pens, razor blades, generators,

  • Electricals like power extension cables, flat irons, and batteries (Duracell, Hyper Panasonic and Eveready)

  • Chinese made tooth brushes bearing the label ‘Nice made in Uganda’

  • Energy saving bulbs

  • Vehicle tyres

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