by Shem Oirere
Africa Correspondent
Counterfeit paints in the Africa market have continued to pose a threat to the expansion and earnings of paint manufacturers despite the
companies reporting mixed experiences
with this global problem.
Recent discoveries of fake paint in the
Kenyan and Ugandan markets point to
a serious challenge facing paint makers
in Eastern Africa unlike in South Africa
where firms said counterfeits are yet to
reach market threatening levels.
In Kenya, for example, officers from
the country’s state-run Kenya Anti-Counterfeit Authority, with the backing of police discovered several liters of
counterfeit paint in Kitengela town, 30
kilometers south of the capital, Nairobi.
The fake paint was trading under
one of the leading brand names in East
Africa’s paint market, Crown Paints.
The discovery in mid-June came barely weeks after officials from the same
agencies made another raid at a hardware retailing shop in Thika town, 45 kilometers northeast of the capital, Nairobi
and recovered several liters of counterfeit paint on sale. Although two suspects
were arrested and arraigned for trading in counterfeit paint, a leading lobby
of manufacturers in East Africa, Kenya
Association of Manufacturers (KAM)
said the judicial process does not help
curb the flourishing counterfeit business.
“The level of punishment under the Anti
Counterfeit Act of 2008 for counterfeiting
is still low, investigation and prosecution
processes take too long, while a common
approach to combat counterfeit at regional
level is yet to be realized. These are serious
challenges and need to be addressed urgently,” said KAM chief executive Betty Maina.
The same situation emerged in Uganda
previously when police and officials from the
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) recov-
ered several liters of counterfeit paint sold in
shops across the country. The paint was from
12 different factories with (URA) saying the
proliferation of fake paint in Uganda was
“choking the manufacturing sector.”
It is not easy to quantify the extent
of the counterfeit paint market in Africa
because of lack of reliable data and as
Maina said brand owners “do not discuss
the problem in public for fear of their
competitors.” She believes the counterfeit
problem is prevalent in economies such
as South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi
where she said there is lack “of intellec-
tual property rights legislation combined
with the attitude of consumers, purchas-
ing power of the consumers and inability
of governments to prioritize counterfeit-
ing in their socio economic programs.”
But overall the counterfeit market in
the region is huge with the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
saying the trade thrives because of high
poverty levels with consumers consider-
ing product prices more than the quality
of products before purchasing.
The agency said Africa is “one mar-
ket where price is likely to continue to be
more important than quality assurance.”
Although no reliable data exists on the
African counterfeit market, globally the
value is in excess of $650 billion with the
International Chamber of Commerce re-
porting the figure will grow to $1.7 trillion
by 2015.
Hard hit countries, the agency said,
“have generally poor and lower capacity
for oversight.”
A recent report by UNODC said the
counterfeit products are competitively
priced and remain profitable because
there are no overheads like those incurred
by the manufacture of original products.
“Because counterfeiters are essentially
unaccountable and have no interest in build-
ing a brand reputation, costs can be addi-
tionally reduced by cutting corners in the
Countering Counterfeits in the African Market
