Counterfeit, poor quality goods must be fought collectively

Editor,The media recently carried a worrying report about Eveready, the region’s manufacturer of transistor batteries. Barring the complex scenarios by market analysts, the simple truth on the ground, equally raised in the same report, is the flooding of the East African Community (EAC) market with cheap, counterfeit, poor quality imported batteries. True, there has been increased rural electrification, but not to the level where a fraction of East Africans has graduated from battery-run gadgets to the mains. The market for the transistor battery still exists. A walk through the Central Business Districts of our cities and towns will testify to this, as all manner of imported batteries dominate the low end market, mainly the size D and AA, used in big and small radios, respectively. Riding on the spread of FM transmission across the region, the transistor battery still has the market, despite growing rural electrification. The challenge is with the East African Business Council and related trade/manufacturing bodies in the region. One loophole that must be plugged are the different Counterfeit Laws in the EAC members states. The region is yet to have one harmonised law, thus the flooding of the market with all matter of strange things, batteries included. Actually the report says these batteries are banned by Kenya Bureau of Standards, but still flood our markets. Matsiko DB KahungaPeers Consult LtdKampala

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Counterfeit, poor quality goods must be fought collectively