In a renewed effort to check the proliferation of fake and substandard products onto the market, the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) will from this month embark on various swoops across the country to raid markets off such products.
The move has become necessary following the increased importation of substandard products onto the local market especially, electronic products.
According to the Authority, up to 90 percent of electrical cables on the market are inferior products, posing a major threat to consumers.
Also, the country is said to be losing millions of cedis due to the sale of such products in the country.
Speaking to the media, the Director General of the Ghana Standards Authority, Professor Alex Doodo warned that the authority will start prosecuting individuals who import substandard products.
He noted that “the products and quality we found on the market requires a new strategy and that is to go beyond the seizing of products to prosecute the culprits.”
Commenting on the mode of the swoop, Professor Doodo disclosed that personnel of the GSA will pose as mystery shoppers to track the dealers of the inferior product and call for their arrest.
“We need to secure the health and lives of Ghanaians and to protect them from these products,” he noted.
Several consultative meetings between the Authority and key stakeholders, including the Ghana Union of Traders Association, (GUTA) to agree on the mode of implementation of the new strategy have been held.
Similar exercises undertaken in the past to clamp down on the importation of inferior goods did not yield much results with industry watchers accusing government of failing to issue stiffer punishment to culprits.
But the GSA is optimistic the current measures will yield the desired results.