Nigeria is losing a whopping N15trillion annually to fake and substandard products annually, according to a report. Not surprising also, the country at the moment has earned a spot among the world’s highest market for fake and substandard goods.
A recent global report published in in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene found out that falsified malaria drugs are responsible for death of over 150,000 children yearly and 10 per cent of all medicines worth over $200 billion (N72 trillion) that sold in developing countries including Nigeria are substandard.
Sadly, aside from drugs, fake products also come in form of food, electronic, household appliances, building materials, electrical, tyres and tubes, and machines among others.
Analysts said the influx of counterfeit and sub-standard products into the domestic market raises serious doubts about the current efforts by the federal government to resuscitate the real sector for it to contribute meaningfully to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
They argued that the country’s enviable spot among the world’s highest market for fake and substandard products and equipment is evidenced by the wanton display of all manner of poor-quality goods and products littering the open markets, shops, supermarkets, chemist and other retail shops.
“This will translate to loss of jobs, reduction in tax payment to government and a weak economy that is unable to compete at the international level. It discourages production and encourages imports which are not good for the economy. It is not out of place to say the collapse of the country’s textile industry is as a result of substandard fabrics that flooded the domestic market, found everywhere and sold at cheaper prices,” they said.
But since coming into office in late September 2020, the director- general of SON, Malam Farouk Salim, has been implementing far-reaching policies that are already addressing the influx and circulation of substandard and life-endangering products into the country.
For instance, between November 2020 to March 2021 alone, SON destroyed N800 million worth of substandard goods in the country and is not slowing down anytime soon as evidenced by the rising statistics on the number of substandard goods the agency has destroyed since then.
The measure it was gathered was part of efforts by the organisation to discourage dumping of substandard products in the country especially as it is playing important role in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) Agreement in collaboration with other stakeholders.
Equally instructive is the recent push by the agency for a policy aimed at returning substandard goods to countries of origin to boost consumers’ confidence and strengthen international trade.
The policy is expected to address the preponderance of imported fake and substandard goods in the country.
The agency believes that an arrangement to return goods with no economic value to countries notable for producing substandard goods was timely and critical.
“We will support any country to prosecute any manufacturer or importer with their own laws over there, but that law to my knowledge is not yet in place, I will definitely like to appeal to the relevant authorities in the future to put such enabling law in place,” Salim said.
Not relenting, SON has also taken its campaign online by partnering with online vendors to checkmate the sale of sub-standard foreign manufactured products in Nigeria.
At a recent outing in Lagos, the head of department, Consumer Complaint of SON, Mrs Mosunmola Samuel, explained that the sophisticated and dynamic nature of e-commerce has made it difficult to track substandard goods since most of the dealers do not have warehouses or fixed addresses.
Accordingly, she continued, the agency’s partnership with online traders would help to track down dealers who would want to abuse online platforms as channels for the sale of substandard wares.
“Most of these online dealers import their products as personal effects. The e-commerce in the Nigerian community is becoming huge and many steps have been taken for its promotion, but there are still lots to be done to make it operate in accordance with standards in the country.
“This is why we are working assiduously on partnering with online merchants to ensure that Nigeria is not a destination for substandard goods.
“We get the feedback through the head of our public relations and follow up with directives to online merchants to stop sales of such product immediately we get a complaint and they will pull it down.
“You know with online marketing, you don’t need to have a shop or selling bulk, all you need is just a hand full of those products and you are already in business.
“The world all over is about standards and we are working tirelessly to educate Nigerians so as to be abreast with global trend.
“On e-commerce, we have so many operating on different platforms and if these products are not registered with our product registration, it means that they are not complying with the requirements of our act.
“So, we need to check and find out where these products are coming from and for every product coming into the country, there is always a major channel.
“We are happy when consumers give us feedbacks which show their level of confidence on the organisation.
“We are proud for the trust in us to start our consumer protection mandate as it also helps us develop and introduce new standards,” she said.
Collaboration with state governments by the agency is also paying off as the number of life-endangering products and services in the nooks and crannies of states had been drastically reduced.
The agency has also re-equipped the National Metrology Institute Enugu to protect Nigerian roads, promote fair trade and calibration of weight bridges nationwide on federal government directive as it deepens its fight.
Nigeria’s election into the Standards Management Committee (SMC) of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) is worth mentioning.The country beat 13 other member states to become first with 27 votes.
Stakeholders said the country’s new status places it at a vantage position at the decision-making table where all decisions concerning standards of products and services and related processes or production methods in Africa are taken.
As its efforts continue to pay off, SON recently emerged as the foremost government agency in promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment.
The achievement was brought to the fore in the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) 2020/2021 Business Made Easy Report and the 2021 Executive Order 1 compliance report published recently.
Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business and Secretary, PEBEC, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, said the published report is in line with the Council’s commitment to continuously measure compliance to the Executive Order (EO1) on the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment and to periodically capture the footprint of the federal government’s reform agenda.
The agency has also intensified efforts to remove product quality limitations and technical barriers to trade (TBTs), while improving the competitiveness and market acceptability of Made in Nigeria products locally and internationally.
Worth mentioning is the brokered partnership between SON and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to tackle the menace of fake products in the country.
The partnership according to the two bodies, would greatly checkmate the high incidence of financially-related crimes, especially the influx of counterfeit products into the country and would help SON to flag suspicious products at the borders for further investigation.
NFIU is the central body in Nigeria responsible for receiving, requesting, analysing and disseminating financial intelligence reports on money laundering, terrorist financing and other relevant information.
Stakeholders told NATIONAL ECONOMY that the latest move by the agency to intensify market survey activities to monitor the performance of locally-certified and imported products in the market place will help Nigeria to maximise opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as it will ensure that substandard products are completely wiped out from the country and much more.
Again, according to them, the impact of SON at the ports cannot be overemphasised as the fight against fake and substandard goods is best fought at the nation’s point of entries.
