Consumers’ Right to Ghana’s Water

by The Consumer Partnership (THE-COP)

Access to a basic supply of water and sanitation is widely recognised in principle as a fundamental human right. The United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights adopted a General Comment on the Right to Water in November 2002. This puts an obligation on governments to extend access to sufficient, affordable and safe water and sanitation services progressively to all citizens without discrimination. This right, which we support, is also established in Agenda 21, in the Declaration of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the 4th P7 Summit on Water (a meeting dedicated to the world’s poorest countries).

To meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015, 400,000 new connections need to be made each day for water and 500,000 for sanitation. This is estimated to cost approximately U$25 billion of investment per year. Debates about water policy focus on how to find the funds for this large investment and how to manage water resources to meet the basic rights of all.

Some of the sharpest disputes have been about private sector participation, often promoted as a means to inject capital and management expertise. Consumers International’s (CI) research shows that private sector involvement, which can take many forms, has in some cases been very valuable (eg rapid network extension, community involvement in informal settlements, leakage reduction, integration of informal vendors) and in others has been disastrous for consumers (eg rapid price rises, premature contract renegotiation, failure to meet expansion targets). In the same way, some public supply systems are excellent, and others are very bad. There should be a code of practice for water utility operators, be they public or private operators.

CI therefore promotes a set of principles which should be applied to all water supply systems, whether in the public sector, entirely privately managed, or a mixture of the two. These principles reflect and support the statements adopted within the United Nations.   

Consumer principles

1.      Consumer rights  Water is a basic need and access to it is therefore specifically recognised in the first of the eight internationally accepted consumer rights. Access to sufficient safe water is essential for life itself, as a vital contributor to public health, and for personal dignity and fulfilment. Water is not just a commercial product like any other and it is a primary obligation on responsible government to make the right to water a reality.

2.      A public good  Water itself is a public good and must remain so. Rights to extract water from sources such as natural reservoirs, rivers and aquifers should be controlled by public authorities, with due regard for the needs of producers, consumers and the environment.

3.      Shared resources Natural water resources are shared between states and cross their boundaries along river basins. Access to water for all consumers must be the overriding objective in reaching equitable agreements about water use across geographical and political boundaries. 

4.      Regulation  Whether provided by public institutions, the private sector, or a combination of the two, water treatment and distribution systems should be subject to effective state regulation to promote and protect the public interest. Regulation should cover access - including as necessary, pricing policy, safety, and service quality (cut-offs, pressure maintenance, billing, for example). Regulation should also cover small scale vendors  where relevant.

5.      Consumer involvement  Consumers should be involved in the regulatory process, including in both establishing and implementing of these regulations. Stakeholder involvement should start with the assessment of needs and objectives and the analysis  of possible utility management models to meet these. The provision of full and timely information is essential for effective stakeholder involvement at all stages.

6.      Pricing  Water pricing, and the use of any subsidies, should be transparent and also equitable between groups of users in similar circumstances. Poverty should never be a barrier to access to a basic supply of clean water and to effective sanitation.

7.      Payment and subsidies  Paying for the water supply should be properly costed and the means to pay for it identified and planned. This includes both capital and operating costs. But recovery of full costs from charges to users should not be the only approach. Public interest objectives such as improving public health and enabling communities to escape from the unproductive drudgery of time-consuming water collection, should be taken into account and if necessary supported by subsidies.

8.      Avoiding waste  Water is a scarce resource and making it available to all, especially the poor, is a challenge for all countries and communities. Consumers have an obligation to respect the wider public interest by avoiding wasteful use, ensuring that they do not contaminate the supply, and paying their due share of the costs of supply.

9.      Private sector obligations  Private companies providing water services have an obligation to respect and support effective regulation, to play a responsible part in delivering social objectives and, where they operate internationally, to apply good safety and service quality standards in all countries.

10.  Polluter pays The polluter pays principle, covering both preventive measure and clean-up costs, should apply to natural water resources and to water distribution and sanitation systems.

Credit: Consumers International (CI) and Water & Sanitation Program (WSP)

Undiscerning Consumers: The New Terrorists On The Block

By Jean Yaw Twum Lukaz

If you also believe that second hand ‘home-used’ products are more durable, cheaper than and superior to quality brand new ones, you are welcome. You just joined the new suicide bombers terrorist cell of ‘Shoddy Consumer Products Patriots (SHOCPPAT)’. Ghana, apparently, is more worried about SHOCPPAT members than coup d’etat planners. The new menace of shoddy consumer products and their nonchalant patronage by uninformed or otherwise indifferent bargain-hunting Ghanaian consumers is generating an unhealthy workforce for the posterity of this nation.

Consumer Terrorists

Many in Ghana have questioned the role of consumer protection groups, consumer advocates and consumer activists in the country in the face of shoddy goods and services at 50. The same people questioning are the very ones patronising these shoddy goods and services given all the many quality alternatives. It is not surprising that it is even the so-called high-class shopping malls or supermarkets that are peddling in expired reengineered luxury goods.

Some major rice importers in the country are rebagging expired rice in newly dated sacks- freshly sealed. If you have been discovering the weevils in your perfumed rice with a 5 years to expiry date, join the club. Frozen fish is thawed, painted, and sold as fresh and when unsold at the end of the day it is refrozen to conceal its discoloured decay and resold to members of the terrorist cell, SHOCPPAT, who cannot tell the difference between fresh fish and a singing sea bass mould.

When consumers are undiscerning in their choice of products on the market due to either ignorance, indifference or lack of consumer education, it is not just the individuals that may suffer the consequences but also neighbours and the nation as a whole. Cases in point are the prevalence of fake electrical products and junkyard rusty-leaky second hand LPG bottles. Both cause fire and burn more than just the owners and their properties. The patriots of these two arson products are the worst terrorists ever, not necessarily the ones George Bush is worried about, but those that our ‘Castle’ should probably be paranoid about.

Read the Label, if you are illiterate

Labelling is essential for the information of consumers. Consumers need to know what, where, when and how the product is to be used for their own health and safety. When products are used wrongly because of bad labelling, the company involved may be liable for damages but the effect on the life of the consumer may be irreversible. Food labelling is one area that Ghanaian consumers may ignore due to their familiarity with the products but it is one area that is having an adverse effect on their health and safety. There are two main objectives in food legislation - the protection of the consumer and ensuring that food and its ingredients are correctly described - and labelling is the key to both. The label should tell you some, or all, of the following:

1. The name and address of the manufacturer – so you know who to complain to if something is wrong

2. The name of the food (e.g. Cheese and Tomato Pizza)

3. The weight of the food (e.g. 250g) - this will help you to compare food from different companies and work out which is the best value for money.

4. Instructions on how to store it (e.g. keep in a fridge)

5. Instructions on how to cook it (e.g. 450F/230C for 20 minutes)

6. A list of ingredients (e.g. sugar, cheese, flour, flavouring etc) - it is important to know what is in the food you eat, especially if you are allergic to certain ingredients or want to avoid too many additives in your food.

'Best Before...'can only be used on foods which have a minimum life greater than six weeks and that cannot be affected by micro biological deterioration - breakfast cereals, frozen food and tinned food are good examples. Tinned food does not last indefinitely - ingredients such as tomato sauce for example can attack the protective coating of the tin.

'Use By...' warning on a food label must not be ignored as it indicates that the food is high risk and could probably cause food poisoning if eaten after the indicated date - examples are high protein foods like fresh meat pies, sausages and dairy products. Products that have the 'Use By' date must always be handled with great care, particularly in warm weather when micro-organisms grow at an accelerated rate. It is also important to remember that contaminated food will not necessarily smell 'off' or taste bad. So what happens to illiterate consumers in this case? Your guess may be as bad as mine.

Who wears the Crown?

How often do you not see street vendors selling a diary product, that require storage in a cool dry place, in the heat of the sun right near the offices of the manufacturer? After a week of bronzing these heat-sensitive consumer products in the sun, some lactose-sucking adult consumer buys them in traffic, three a pesewa, in exchange for the health and safety of all their family. African germs may not kill, but ignorance and indifference do- slowly… Do not blame some of us consumer advocates for your witting, narcissist-self-destructive suicide consumer bomb of inaction when you are down. Certainly, the companies do not care about the state of their product at the point of consumption otherwise they would take the pains to educate the peddlers as to the conditions of sale of their produce- call a sachet/bottled water and a milk producer and do not forget about the regulators either.

Yes, consumers in Ghana are kings as long as they carry the manufacturers and distributors in palanquins, an unfortunate role reversal in a comedy of sorts. As long as the manufacturers know we are willing to make them richer however shoddy their products, Ghanaian consumers shall enviously watch them wear our crown while we kowtow in genuflection to their whims.

0800-Complain

When was the last time you picked up the phone, called a company consumer hotline (if there was any on their product) and complained about their shoddy product or wrote to them with copies to the regulator of the sector, be it the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) or the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) or other and a Consumer Protection Organisation?

Anytime companies advertise their products aggressively, however shoddy, consumers can only make an impact in reaction to such unethical practices by equitably complaining insistently. Without consumer complaints, manufacturers, regulators, and policy makers all assume that everything is all right even though they may have personally experienced that shoddy product or service. Consumer protection organisations rely on a database of consumer complaints in order to confront the appropriate authorities in charge of regulating a particular sector before they can influence policy.

Most companies in Ghana lack a complaints management system as part of their quality assurance mechanism and ethical business practices. They, thus, make it more difficult for consumers to complain about their unsatisfactory products and services. Consumer protection is a vocabulary they do not want to hear forgetting that customer care in itself is a consumer protection measure from an internal orientation. With the introduction of toll free numbers by Ghana Telecom, we are looking forward to seeing many of these organisations grab some complaints hotlines at no cost to the consumer. Consumer complaints, after all, is valuable feedback for any forward thinking organisation.

Only a vibrant complaints culture can force businesses, regulators and policy makers to act so join the bandwagon. Complain (but do not forget to boycott that shoddy product) and add your voice to the quest for high quality product and service standards for a higher standard of living in Ghana. A healthy people make a healthy nation.

 Published in Public Agenda on 19th December 2006: www.ghanaweb.com/public_agenda

*The author is a Consumer Advocate and he can be reached at Http://www.theconsumerpartnership.org 

My Drinking Water From Your Latrine

*By Jean Lukaz

When I touched down four years ago and questioned why people buy sachet water instead of drinking the ‘pure’ borehole alternative in the absence of piped water, little did I reckon that my secondary school science knowledge may be flawed. The water meters in Taifa-Burkina were just part of the exterior décor of houses and quite unlike the poisoned gas taps and showers in the Nazi camps, the taps in the area bill you for pure air…

Borehole water in Apatrapa, near Kumasi is not as salty as the same source of water at Taifa near Accra. And if you happen to live on a flat land, on top of a hill, on a slope, or in a valley, your borehole water may taste different depending on what soil-related activities are taking place on the land right up or next to you.

Drinking ‘pure’ KVIP Water?

Due to the lack of treated water supply in Honourable-Reverend-Professor Mike Ocquaye’s Taifa constituency almost one in five houses own a quasi-permanent water supply from below in the form of borehole wells that are used for both domestic and commercial purposes. At the same time, those that are thrifty have found ingenious ways of cutting down on the cost of water use by building an ‘Advanced KVIP’- a latrine with a WC on top I presume... in place of a water-run WC. The borehole water in this area is by no means tastier and salty due to the probable impurities it contains. My argument here may have no scientific basis but commonsense is all the ordinary consumer needs to be able to examine any situation that affects their status quo.

Soak away…

Cost-cutters have found old ways more beneficial and have resorted to the ‘soak away’ method of draining their domestic sewage. Outflows from the kitchen, bathroom and more recently, the toilets have all been directed to the soak away for onward seepage into underground water neighbouring borehole water systems. It may be cheaper avoiding the sucking costs of the Yafurus, Zoomlions, Jogmas, etc, but the deliberate recycling of toilet water for borehole purposes is definitely going to yield results…possibly bigger balls than the strange disease that has reared its ugly head in some villages in the country.

In as much as almost all the residents of Taifa buy clean or contaminated sachet water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, dishwashing and bathing are all done with borehole water. Pray that you never go broke if you are resident in the community, or you may be forced to drink some of the borehole stuff. Boiling before you drink is advisable but what if you cannot afford the extra energy cost?

Does the advanced-KVIP next door to or on the premises of a borehole water seller ring a bell? And some of these benevolent businessmen have attached pure water factories to their ‘pure’ wells and are selling the obvious.

Consumer Rights

This piece may sound provocative but the supply of drinking water is a consumer right as well as the provision of sanitation facilities to communities. And if my knowledge of languages serves me any purpose, Aqua-whatever-Vitens has definitely got something to do with water, precisely piped water supply in Ghana with rumored jurisdiction over underground water supply from KVIPs and soak aways as well.

There is tension between water as a scarce economic resource and access to water as a human right. The right to the satisfaction of basic needs, the right to safety and the right to a healthy environment are consumer rights all related the provision of water and sanitation services by the government. Safe water is crucial for life and health, its availability and affordability for the entire population are of enormous welfare and political importance.

 Cost

There are much higher costs of water for unconnected people compared to those with piped supply. A sachet of half-litre drinking water costs 300 cedis, equivalent to the cost of 10 litres of borehole water in Taifa: 20 times the quantity. In some areas of Accra, it costs even more and many have franchised the work of the Aqua-whatever-Vitens Ghana Water Company by blocking a whole neighbourhood’s piped water supply for their monopoly Russian-style.

Are we worried?

Published in Public Agenda on 16th April 2007: www.ghanaweb.com/public_agenda

*The author is a Consumer Advocate and he can be reached at Http://www.theconsumerpartnership.org 

 

Robbery On Our Streets?

*By Jean Lukaz

Hardly a day passes without the usual harassment of street vendors touting all sorts of items from newspapers to car accessories to other consumables. A cause of worry is the sale of cigarette and gas lighters, catapults, pocket knives and machettis our streets. Since street robbers started attacking road users with some of these replica pistol-shaped gas lighters, syringes and machettis, scarcely were any of the victims alert as to whether they were being sold the ‘weapon’ or being attacked until…

Ghanaian consumers have always been at the mercy of lax laws or the enforcement of seemingly effective ones. In some advanced countries like Britain, the possession of a knife or any sharp weapon in public is itself a crime let alone touting same in the street for sale.

The Ghana Police Service once warned on the sale of replica gun-shaped objects and toys when armed robbery was on the rise in the country but soon suffered from amnesia, a common disease with law enforcement in Ghana.

So you want to buy a rifle-shaped lighter on the streets with engines of vehicles running. How do you test for product quality? Of course you may need to light it in the midst of petrol and diesel packed street without cognisance of any leaky ones and BOOM! Forget about the fire service and call a water tanker… but both will come in handy.

A machetti peddler approaches your vehicle. You ask how much and he tells you ‘10 million cedis’.

‘You’re mad?’, you ask.

‘No’, comes the reply.

‘Your money or your arm?’

Whew… No time to discern whether he is a street vendor or robber as the sight of your own blood will depict how serious he is.

A syringe-touting street vendor may be an unusual sight but that is definitely a junkie, and not a nurse! You may have a choice between HIV/Aids, your money or your car… No lesser evil here.

How about the recent trend of hitchhikers on our streets? It may not sound like a consumer issue until you have the opportunity of partaking in the hooker experience. An opportunity if you are a sex tourist. A see-through, low neck, low back, low waist line ‘I’m-not-for-sale’ young women desperately in need of hitching a ride to an unknown destination apart from yours are the ones that will be creating a scene when you ask them to get off your vehicle.

‘Pay me or I’ll call my pimps, you dirty b _ _ _ _ _ d!’   

It may be easier to comprehend all these situations if they occur in front of the Psychiatric Hospital. It is rumoured that everyday some of the inmates are released onto the streets to test whether they are back to ‘normal’. Subjectively, all of them will be normal except you, the victim.

The consumer hotlines of the Police are always engaged. These robber-killer-hooker-junkies need them more than you do. So anytime you step out of your home, PLEASE BE A VIGILANT AND DISCERNING CONSUMER!

 

Published in Public Agenda on 16th April 2007: www.ghanaweb.com/public_agenda

*The author is a Consumer Advocate and he can be reached at Http://www.theconsumerpartnership.org 

Ghana To Combat Counterfeiting And Piracy

President John Agyekum Kufuor yesterday expressed government's determination to ensure that stiffer laws are enacted to make counterfeiting and piracy crimes as offensive as drug trafficking and punish offenders as such.
     
He said government was poised to make Ghana a no-go zone for counterfeits and would ensure that special courts were established if necessary to hear cases involving the manufacture, distribution and sale of counterfeit or pirated products.
    
"This insidious crime of product counterfeiting has become a global phenomenon, it's no longer the canker of the under-developed or developing world. The developed world is also battling with counterfeiting products albeit at a scale lower than in our part of the world," he said.
     
The President made this known in a speech read for him by Mr  Kwadwo Mpiani, Chief of Staff, at the opening a two-day National Dialogue on Counterfeit Products in Accra for stakeholders.
     
The dialogue, the first to be organised by the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) in collaboration with European Union (EU) and the Institute of Packaging, Ghana, is on "Protecting the Consumer against counterfeit products through Inter-Agency and Regional collaboration."
     
President Kufuor noted that government was worried not only of the threat to human life but also the fact that counterfeit products denied genuine products of the rightful market share, costing governments significant amounts in lost tax revenues as well as threatening jobs and creating lack of consumer confidence in products.
     
According to the European Commission, counterfeiting and piracy cost the EU eight billion euros a year in lost economic output between 1998 and 2001.  "We can no longer ignore this activity whereby certain unscrupulous individuals and criminal gangs produce counterfeit medicines and medical devices which risk the lives of people, or as in the reported case in China a few years ago involving dummy milk formula for babies in which several children died." 
     
President Kufuor urged the meeting to make appropriate recommendations to government on policies and strategies to curb counterfeiting and piracy and develop strategies to overcome the major challenges confronting the nation, which he described as coordination of the activities of the different agencies in this area.
     
Health Minister Major Courage Quashigah (Rtd) said the counterfeit menace was worrying and its impact was enormous, adding that, counterfeiters deterred honest manufacturers from investing resources in new products.
     
He said various medicines, food and beverages, cosmetics and medical devices such as condoms were being counterfeited and noted that though scientific data was very scanty, efforts at fighting the menace needed to be more proactive.
     
Product counterfeiting, he said, hit everyone hard in the pocket and only the faceless persons behind the crime benefited, while legitimate businesses collapsed and many people also lost their lives.
     
"The magnitude of the problem caused by counterfeiting requires strong and sustained action from all stakeholders including businesses and consumers," he said.  Government, the Minister noted, was therefore committed to mobilising resources to protect intellectual property and said that Ghana had a high stake in optimising the use of intellectual property to protect the national knowledge, inventions and creativity.
     
He commended the role of neighbouring countries represented at the meeting and called for increased inter-agency cooperation at the national and sub-region levels and said it would enhance collective action against the heinous crime.
     
Miss Shirley Ayokor Botchway, Deputy Minister, Trade Industry, Presidential Special Initiatives and Private Sector Development said issues of intellectual property could not be overemphasized and that government would continue to wilfully support activities of regulatory, security and stakeholder agencies that were committed to fighting the crime.
     
She said the worrying nature of the crime was that consumers were increasingly being put at the risk of harm and death from unsafe and ineffective products which were exported through complex distribution channels before getting to the consumers.
     
She therefore called for a concerted effort to fight the crime and put in place quick decisive and punitive measures needed to bring rampant counterfeiting and piracy activities down.
     
Mr Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko, Chief Executive Officer of FDB, said the fight against counterfeiting and piracy could only be successful if stakeholders, including the consumer worked closely in a coordinated manner and across borders with the aim of "dismantling the modus operandi of the criminal gangs behind counterfeiting."
     
He noted that, it was time to get tough and deal decisively with the rip-off-artists and make them pay for the harm and pain inflicted on consumers and the economies of various countries.
     
Mr Agyarko urged participants to ensure that various options should be deployed to make markets better secured from counterfeits products.

Source: GNA
Posted: 22/07/08

http://www.ghana.gov.gh/ghana/ghana_combat_counterfeiting_and_piracy.jsp

The impact of illicit trade and counterfeit goods on national development

I am often asked to comment on counterfeiting and counterfeit products, presumably because i have been heard to speak against illicit trade in the past.

At a 'Facts Behind the Figures' presentation at the Ghana Stock exchange in April 2009, a reporter castigated Unilever for speaking out against unfair trade at every opportunity it got insinuating that Unilever was always looking for protection from competition. 

I choose this anecdote because it was obvious to me that the young reporter, possibly representing the views of many Ghanaians, did not appreciate the harmful effects of counterfeiting and illicit trade on national development - other than the stereotype that large manufacturers and enterprises speak out it against it, perhaps self-servingly with one eye on their bottom-line profitability. 

I had to digress somewhat and spend sometime explaining the different levels at which the nation was affected by illicit trade. 

The Ghana Employers' Association (GEA) is commemorating its Anniversary Celebrations and has dedicated the month of June to dialogue on the topic "Consumer Protection Against Illicit Counterfeit Goods." It is in this vein that I would like to con¬tribute, on behalf of the GEA, some views that Ghanaian industrialists and enterprises have had cause to espouse previously.

A growing regional and global business 

Counterfeiting and piracy are terms used to describe a range of illicit activities linked to intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement. Counterfeiting thrives on the whole process of globalization, since globalization is the spread of capital and know-how to new markets.

This in turn contributes low cost labour to create the ideal export machinery, manufacturing first low cost, value-added products and then moving up the value chain. This is the story of South East Asia. It is also the story of China. Now it is the story of fake products.

Counterfeiting delivers the benefits of skilled labour, efficient distribution and product technology without the associated investment in costly research development and marketing in products that are not genuine brands. 

In 2004, the World Customs Organisation estimated the global trade in counterfeit products to be worth $512 billion and growing exponentially. 

Today the term ‘counterfeit’ is often used synonymously with imitation, adulteration and passing-off to embody all these various forms of illicit trade which are however, not one and the same thing. 

The WHO defines a counterfeit as a product which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source ingredients or the packaging and presented as a known branded product. Substandard goods are genuine products.

Substandard goods are genuine products produced by legitimate manufacturers that do not meet the quality specifications that the producer says they meet. 

An imitation or pass-off is a product made to resemble very closely, a known branded product but with very minor changes in name or packaging. Adulterated products comprise fake ingredients or product form in recycled genuine packaging of known and legitimate brands.

Thus all counterfeit products are substandard because they are manufactured and distributed outside of regulatory control and their composition is unpredictable. On the other hand, not all substandard products are counterfeit because not all of them have been deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled. 

The definition of counterfeit products currently varies from region to region and from one try to another in Africa, where a lot of our laws are relics from the colonial era when illicit trade and economic crimes were very different from what they are today. 

As such some Penal Codes in Africa still classify acts of counterfeiting as misdeamenours, enabling perpetrators get away to with a slap on the wrist and minor fines when apprehended. 

Industrial property rights experts are presently campaigning for the harmonisation of anti-counterfeiting laws across Africa. They blame Africa's disjointed legal regime for the failure to tackle the menace which has stifled the continent's industrial growth. 

The lack of clear, legal frameworks at national levels and absence of a common regional policy on counterfeiting leaves a vacuum that is being exploited by counterfeiters. Worldwide corruption conflicts of interest result in weak regulation 
And lack of enforcement.

Informal distribution systems in many developing countries, false declaration by importers and an insecure environment also create conditions for proliferation of counterfeit products. This is compounded by ignorance and poor public awareness about counterfeit products, deceitful advertisements and in some cases indifference by governments. 

Counterfeit operators have created a global industry that now rivals the multinational, corporation in speed, reach and sophistication. Counterfeit manufacturing used to be cottage industry but this is no longer so.

The combination of seed capital to finance their operations operations, expertise in re-engineering and ability to penetratrate legitimate distribution channels has created a global crisis, Anything that is manufactured can be faked -- from consumer electronics through cigarettes and auto parts to shoes, bouillon cubes, antibiotics without active ingredients to $100 bills. Counterfeiting has become as profitable as trading drugs and illegal narcotics, and is a lot less risky. 

In some parts of the world organised crime is said to have shifted from smuggling of narcotics and weapons to counterfeiting of medicines as a lucrative enterprise. As counterfeiters do not have to cover research and development, marketing and advertising costs, most of their expense goes into making products look convincing not into making them perform well. 

In the last few years we have been witnesses to the speed with which new designs from Ghanaian textile industry have copied by counterfeit manufacturers based in China. 

A new report from the International Policy Network (IPN) states that 700,000 people die annually from consuming fake drugs, most of which originate from China and India.

IPN estimates that almost one per cent of drugs sold in Ghana, Nigeria, Angola, Burundi and the Congo are fake and sub-standard leaving people unknowingly consume paint saw dust, cement, talcum powder and other toxic substances.

IPN also estimates that only one per cent of counterfeit drugs are found in the developed countries where there is high literacy rate and resolve by government to protect trademarks and intellectual property 

A multi-faceted problem.

Counterfeit products affect nation on five different levels and adversely impact our society in the following ways which unfortunately are not always obvious:

Via-a-vis Consumers : One level many level many consumers do not know about counterfeit products, and even when they do, are unable to distinguish between counterfeits and authentic products. Thus unsuspecting consumers are often cheated into buying counterfeits and only become aware of this long after parting with their money. 

Counterfeit pharmaceutical products have led to drug resistance, treatment failures and deaths, and have eroded public confidence in health care systems. On another level there is another group of consumers who are very much aware of the existence of counterfeit products and patronise them willingly, in the belief that counterfeits are "good for poor people." 

Vis-a-vis Local Industry and Traders: 

The existence of counterfeit products spoil the good name of genuine products and crowd them out of the market, leading to loss of volume, capacity under-utilisation, higher cost of production and depressed earnings for manufacturers and legitimate trademark owners. 

Counterfeits also affect the reputation of brands over time, and lead to erosion of confidence in the manufacturer and product delivery systems. This further affects foreign direct investment as the structure of trade is altered. 

Vis-a-vis Employment and Job Creation: 

Employment is put at risk where there is no effective deterrent against counterfeiting and piracy. 

Vis-a-vis Government revenue: 

Counterfeit operators are illicit traders who do not comply with government regulations. This leads to loss of customs and excise duties, corporate and personal tax revenues for government as well as higher cost of law enforcement and judicial proceedings. 

Vis-a-vis the Image and Reputation of Ghana: Economy worldwide, counterfeiting and piracy undermine innovation which is key to economic growth. More importantly, a nation where counterfeiting is rampant quickly gains a reputation as a safe haven for peop1e who wish to engage in economic crimes, shattering any hard won positive reputation we may have built over time. 

The Ghana Business Coalition Against Illicit Trade 

Fakes have been around for decades, but their prevalence and sophistication have grown in leaps and bounds over the past 16 years, almost spinning out of control. A cross-section of private sector organisations led by GEA sounded a renewed call to arms against counterfeits and piracy in 2007. 

The GEA led a movement culminating in the launch of the Coalition against counterfeits and Illicit Trade (CACIT) on July 18, 2007 with membership drawn from the following bodies: 

• Ghana Standards Board, whose role is to prescribe the standards for products to be sold in Ghana, and ensure that products meet those set standards. 

• Food and Drugs Board, whose role is to regulate and monitor foods drugs, cosmetics, devices and chemical substances on the Ghanaian markets. The FDB registers all such products and ensures that only registered products are sold on our market. FDB is also responsible for ensuring that all registered products are wholesome and fit for human consumption/use. 

• The Registrar General’s Department. 

They are responsible for registering international property right including trademarks, designs and patents and also ensuring that no individual or entity registers a trademark/design/patent that is similar to one that has already been registered or one that is commonly known globally to belong to another individual or entity e.g. Coca Cola. 

• Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, whose role is to police the country's borders and ports to prevent counterfeit, unwholesome and illicit products from entering the country. CEPS is also responsible for ensuring that all products that enter Ghana legitimately pay the right taxes and duties. 

• Ghana Union of Traders Association, representing the interests of traders who unknowingly (and sometimes knowingly) deal in counterfeit goods.

• Ghana Trades Union Congress, representing the interests of employees whose jobs could be affected by increased levels of counterfeits. 

• The Association of Ghana Industries. 

AGI's role is to represent the interests of private sector companies and intellectual property right holders whose products are the tar¬get of counterfeiters . 

• Ghana Employers' Association, sponsors of the initiative and representing employers. 

I will emphasise that the Coalition Against Counterfeit & Illicit trade acknowledges that competition is healthy as it offers consumers the choice and forces local industries to be more effective, and does not seek to promote protectionism. CACIT recognised that there had been an alarming increase in the incidence of dumping, smuggled, under-invoiced, counterfeit and sub-standard products on the Ghanaian market which did not meet the prescribed Ghanaian standards. These activities impacted the Ghanaian consumer and called for appropriate remedial action to be initiated 

As a coalition, CACIT seeks the enforcement of intellectual property laws, copyright, patent and trademark protection, and licensing laws in order to protect consumers from counterfeit products and all other forms of illicit trade, thereby defending the integrity of member organizations’ brands. 

The strategy for achieving these goals is to use all legal means at its disposal to significantly increase intellectual property rights levels. These include working for the enactment of tougher laws and the education of the business community, consumers, and the media and interaction with authorities -local and international - to strengthen the enforcement of those laws governing illicit trade in all its forms. 

Actions Underway/Required to Combat Counterfeiters and Illicit Trade 

Manufacturers can work more systematically with law enforcement agencies to intensify raids on factories and warehouses of suspected distributors. 

IPR reform leading to speedy resolution of intellectual property rights disputes and heightened intellectual property protection. A strong legal framework and effective punishment to serve as a real deterrent is needed. 

Counterfeiting of any product that presents a health or safety hazard to consumers could be treated as a criminal offence with a possible mandatory prison term. 

National education and awareness programme to overcome the lack of awareness of the problem by counterfeit products and medicines in the mind of the average Ghanaian. A specia1 collaboration to combat counterfeit medicines could be initiated at National and regional levels involving stakeholders from the public sector, civil society, health care professionals, manufacturers, distributers, and the media.

Counterfeiting is greater in areas where regulatory and legal oversight is weaker. Intellectual property protection enforcement have contributes significantly to innovation, investment, and growth around the world and Ghana is at stage of development where continued investment in the growth of our economy are necessary to improve living standards of Ghanaians. That is why as employers we speak out, and seek to bring about action against counterfeits and illicit trade. The GEA is of the firm conviction that combating piracy and counterfeiting with determination will bring benefits to Ghana and the West Africa sub-region.

By Charles A Cofie 
President of Ghana Employers’ Association

http://news.myjoyonline.com/business/200906/31043.asp

Ghana Will Soon Have A National Competition Law, ISSER

Ghana will soon have a National Competition Law that will serve the purposes of ensuring efficiency in the production of goods and services.

The law will enable consumers of products and services to enjoy lower prices, higher quality goods and services with variety of choices.

Dr Charles Ackah, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) announced this at the first meeting of a group called the National Reference Group to discuss issues involved in having a competition policy in Ghana.

The National Reference Group has members from the National Communications Authority, Energy Commission, Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), Bank of Ghana, Trades Union, Non-Governmental Organisations especially those that focus on consumer protection and the Food and Drugs Board.

Dr Ackah explained that a National Competition Law in any developing country like Ghana can play an important role in tackling some abuses of the market power.

For example Ghacem, a cement producing company in Ghana, has been long suspected of price-fixing, he said and noted that prices of cement range from GH¢ 5.6 to GH¢ 10, while calculations commissioned by the Auditor General suggests that cement can be retailed at less than GH¢ 4.6.

Dr Ackah said when the law is passed a Competition Commission will be set up to regulate the Ghanaian Market and will ensure access to affordable and quality products and services.

"Ghana currently lacks a comprehensive consumer protection law," he said and explained that even though there are legal institutions to deal with issues that concerned consumer protection there are also challenges that need to be dealt with.

A competition policy in Ghana will adopt advocacy through the National Reference Group to educate citizens about existing laws and regulations to guarantee people access to the right information about access to affordable and quality products.

Mr Rijit Sengupta, Deputy Head of CUTS International, India based non governmental organisation that focuses on promoting competition policy, consumer protection, human development and trade issues especially in developing countries said there is the need for the right regulatory framework to ensure an effective competition policy in a country.

He said the project featuring in Ghana, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo will engage in research, dialogues, advocacy, networking and training to educate people about competition policy.

Civil society organisations, the business community and governments are expected to be the direct beneficiaries and the National Reference Group members will help enhance knowledge on competition policy and consumer welfare.

Mr Sengupta noted that, the project will promote a healthy competitive culture in the country while establishing communication channels between civil society, the business community and government.

Source: GNA
Posted: 20/09/08

http://www.ghana.gov.gh/ghana/ghana_will_soon_have_national_competition_law_isser.jsp