ACA said Kenya is turning to technology in the war against counterfeits and illicit products
Kenya is turning to technology in the war against counterfeits and illicit products.
The Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA), Acting Executive director, Fridah Kaberia, said they are creating a Property Rights Database that will be used by officers at the borders to easily identify counterfeits before they enter the Kenyan market.
Kaberia, who spoke on Wednesday, 15 June 2022, as the world marked the global Anti-Counterfeit Day, which is organised by the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG) said Property Rights Recordation has been lauded as one of the most effective international best practices in enforcement and prohibiting of importation of counterfeit goods.
“As Kenya embraces innovation and technology, this intellectual Property Right recordation measures, will use image processing software to assist custom and border point inspectors to have brand information and counter the entry of counterfeits into the country,” Kaberia said, adding that record keeping will be a game-changer in the war against counterfeiting.
“From our enforcement data, over 80 per cent of counterfeit goods are imported. Record of Intellectual Property Rights and Recordation law calls for the creation of a database of IPR information relating to trademarks, and copyrights before entry into the country,” she said.
Kenya is the only member of the GACG from the East Africa region and joined Nigeria and Zimbabwe, the other two African countries, to mark the day with the theme ‘Leveraging on Technology to Combat Counterfeiting.’
Deputy Head of Public Service Wanyama Musiambo, who is also the coordinator of a multi-agency task force set up in 2018 by President Uhuru Kenyatta to combat illicit products, said the production and trafficking of counterfeit goods not only endanger consumers’ health and safety, but also has an economic impact on legitimate businesses and consumers due to lost revenue, downtime, and replacement costs.
“It is four years since President Uhuru Kenyatta issued an Executive Order No.1/ of 2018 directing the formation of a task force to combat illicit. The team has seized goods worth over KSh13.5 billion,” he said.
Musiambo called for the elimination of counterfeit and illicit trade in both public and private sectors, for the prosperity of Kenyans.
According to the World Economic Forum, illicit trade creates an annual drain on the global economy of 2.2 trillion US Dollars, nearly 3 per cent of the world’s economy.
Kenya, like any other economy, is facing the wrath of counterfeiting and illicit trade that is affecting the government development agenda under the ‘Big Four’ Agenda.
The National Baseline Survey on Counterfeit in Kenya, integrated the total size of illicit trade at approximately Sh826 billion in 2018, rising from Sh726 billion in 2017 which translates to 8.9 per cent and 9.3 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, respectively.
The development framework targets to have the manufacturing sector increase its contribution to the GDP from eight per cent in 2017 to 15 per cent by the end of 2022.
Source: MY Gov