Nigeria is grappling with a proliferation of counterfeit and substandard merchandise together with meals gadgets and medicines, a state of affairs that’s placing thousands and thousands of lives in danger.
A 2023 Bloomberg report labelled Nigeria as essentially the most counterfeit market within the creating world, and ranked prominently amongst African nations grappling with the devastating penalties of pretend medication, inflicting hundreds of annual fatalities.
These faux medicines and merchandise usually comprise dangerous substances or lack important elements, and several other Nigerians have fallen sufferer to them.
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Recounting her harrowing expertise, Juliet Odoh, an Abuja-based accountant mentioned her eight-months-old son developed rashes and bumps after utilizing supposedly trusted child lotion and cleaning soap.
“I purchased this cleaning soap and lotion from a neighborhood grocery store near my home however simply two days after use, I noticed unusual rashes on my 8-month-old son. It was unusual to me as a result of it was his common cleaning soap and oil. I couldn’t inform whether or not it was the cleaning soap or lotion inflicting the bumps and rashes so I discarded it instantly,” she mentioned.
There was additionally the tragic incident in April 2021 in Kano, the place about 10 individuals died and 50 others underwent kidney-related therapy after consuming “substandard and faux” juices. Well being authorities within the state reported that no fewer than 400 individuals had been admitted to authorities hospitals after consuming the drinks.
Many Nigerians are uncovered to substandard and faux medicines and merchandise regardless of the existence of regulatory our bodies just like the Nationwide Company for Meals and Drug Administration and Management (NAFDAC) and Requirements Organisation of Nigeria (SON), whose main duties are to make sure that items manufactured, imported, distributed and bought in Nigeria and secure, authentic and of high quality.
The current discovery of counterfeit wines and drinks in Aba sparked outrage over the function of the NAFDAC and SON, prompting requires the overhaul of the companies.
In 2022, the Nationwide Main Healthcare Growth Company reported that over 70 % of medicine being disbursed in Nigeria had been substandard, and a majority of Nigerians didn’t have entry to high quality well being providers, though NAFDAC has disputed this determine, indicating that the prevalence was at 15 %.
Counterfeit merchandise price $750,000, together with drinks, packaged meals, medicines and toiletries, had been not too long ago destroyed by the company.
The United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime, in its report printed in 2023, discovered that as many as 267,000 deaths per 12 months had been linked to falsified and substandard antimalarial medicines in sub-Saharan Africa, and as much as 169,271 had been linked to falsified and substandard antibiotics used to deal with extreme pneumonia in kids.
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Whereas some blame the present financial state of affairs within the nation as fueling the incidence of counterfeiting, many attributed it to ineffective regulation, monitoring and enforcement.
Muda Yusuf, CEO of the Centre for the Promotion of Non-public Enterprise, advised BusinessDay: “The present financial state of affairs has been fuelling the incidence of counterfeiting, sadly. The manufacturing value and costs of many authentic merchandise is escalating phenomenally.
“That creates quite a lot of incentives for counterfeiters to money in as a result of they know that most individuals will be unable to afford the unique merchandise. The regulatory companies want to sit down up, construct their capability to collect intelligence and knowledge to trace down these counterfeiters.”
A number of different elements are additionally blamed, certainly one of which is the extremely unregulated open drug markets in main cities within the nation the place medicines are hawked and bought indiscriminately on road corners, bus stops, kiosks, and stalls.
Notable open drug markets in Nigeria embody these positioned in Sabon-Gari market, Kano; Idumota market, Lagos; Onitsha head-bridge market; Ariaria Market, Aba; and Mile 1 and Mile 3 markets, Rivers.
Nigeria’s overreliance on imports can be seen as facilitating the unfold of falsified merchandise. Greater than 70 % of medicine in Nigeria are imported, primarily from India and China, that are two of the world’s greatest sources of counterfeit medicines.
A 2023 report by Organised Crime: West African Response to Trafficking, titled, ‘Dangerous pharma: trafficking illicit medical merchandise in West Africa.’ revealed that illicit and counterfeit medical merchandise from China and India had been taking on the drug markets in Nigeria, and different nations in West Africa.
It additionally discovered that throughout the area, Nigeria and Ghana are the main producers of each authorized and illicit medical merchandise, whereas large-scale manufacturing is extra restricted in Francophone West Africa.
The report mentioned illicit producers don’t export their medical merchandise immediately and as a substitute use intermediaries in native freight corporations linked to the West African diaspora – such because the Nigerian contingent within the metropolis port of Guangzhou in China.
It additionally uncovered how out of 172 pharmaceutical producers primarily based in ECOWAS nations, 120 are in Nigeria and 37 in Ghana, and these official producers sit alongside a raft of unlawful labs.
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The journey in transporting counterfeit medication, in response to the report, can take a number of months, involving a number of transit factors well-liked with traffickers, together with the free commerce zones within the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as a method of concealing the supply of the cargo.
Mojisola Adeyeye, director basic of NAFDAC, not too long ago lamented that Nigerians had been facilitating the unfold of counterfeit medication by conniving with producers and distributors for egocentric beneficial properties.
A 2019 PwC report estimated that Nigeria was dropping about N200 billion yearly to counterfeit medication, excluding substandard medication.
Those that spoke to BusinessDay are of the view that with lack of rigorous inspection and enforcement measures, perpetrators have been emboldened to flood the market with substandard gadgets, endangering unsuspecting customers.
The NAFDAC boss has repeatedly mentioned the company didn’t have the employees to successfully police 50,020 registered medicines, together with natural medication, cosmetics, meals, medical gadgets, and vaccines.
Farouk Salim, former director basic of SON, mentioned the penalty for offenders just isn’t ample. He added that in 2015, the penalty for importing sub-standard merchandise was N1 million however that N1 million is not important as these importing these merchandise are wealthy.
“Within the business the place individuals break the foundations, it’s the penalties that cease them. So, we have to amend the Act to extend the jail time period or give them the suitable to superb and guarantee that jail time period is added to it,” Salim had mentioned.
Adaobi Onyechi, a public well being skilled, emphasised the dire penalties of counterfeit medicines on public well being. She mentioned the ineffectiveness or hurt attributable to these merchandise not solely escalates healthcare prices but additionally jeopardizes common well being protection.
“It even worsens out-of-pocket expenditure as a result of Nigerians who purchase substandard and counterfeit medication and it doesn’t work for them or places them in a essential situation find yourself paying extra for well being,” she mentioned.
“The financial impacts of the proliferation of those counterfeit merchandise contains an ‘underground financial system’ that deprives the federal government of income for very important public providers, forces increased burden on taxpayers, and dislocates a whole bunch of hundreds of reliable jobs,” Muda Yusuf, CEO, Centre for the Promotion of Non-public Enterprise, mentioned.
Ikechukwu Joseph, proprietor of an digital enterprise in Wuse market in Abuja, spoke of how the pattern continues to erode belief as patrons consistently fear concerning the authenticity of what they’re shopping for.
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“Everyone knows that well being is wealth, the significance of our well being can’t be undermined and if there are faux merchandise on the town, it simply tells us that there shall be quite a lot of extra well being challenges starting from kidney points, liver points and even power illness that ought to have been managed, due to the dearth of standardization and regulatory authorities. Folks with power ailments corresponding to hypertension, diabetes, might be victims of those merchandise,” Sam Adu, a medical skilled with Aman Medicare, mentioned.
