There are a lot of products in the Nigerian market today that are fake in both quality and quantity. However, with a good and proper legislation, excesses of product counterfeiters could be edged out.
While condemning the issue of product counterfeiting in the country, Mr. Olumide Makinde, Sales Operations Manager, Southwest, Intercontinental Distilleries Limited, observed that no binding laws among other factors is at the centre of the crisis.
“Any successful brand must have a fake. The reasons are very clear, some of these brands that are doing well have better advantages in terms of quality, packaging and they enjoy brand equity. But as a company, we are always one thousand and one ahead of fakers,” said Makinde.
He made it clear that his organization is not taking its foot off the paddle, adding: “We have also taken the matter to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) level, the umbrella body of all the manufacturers in Nigeria, and they are trying their best to make sure that the National Assembly put stiffer penalty in place, than what we are presently having.”
To keep people away from such an act, he suggested that, “you must have a legislation that is very strong. The law for now is six months in prison or in lieu of N400,000 fines which is not stiff enough for offence of such magnitude. On our part as a company, we also educate the consumers on the dangers of buying fake products and we are getting closer to the consumers more than before.”
He also noted the huge involvement of his company to this campaign, which is focused at sensitizing the public on the dangers of fake products. “We have people that sell exclusively to the end users. If you also look at our packaging very frequently we try to add one new thing or the other which fakers cannot do. We change labels, corks and bottle shapes to destabilize those who are doing this, to discourage them and once they realize it is going to gulp a lot of money, they become deterred.
“We have changed some of our labels just to destabilize them and see how we can move ahead of them,” he stressed.
Fake products are widely present in the market, some imported and others locally produced. Preventing the wide distribution of fake drugs in the Country will amount to a good economic market. However, the fight starts from us as individuals; we need to develop a conscious attitude towards identifying a fake and avoiding them actively.