By Kiyimba Bruno
The Director Strategies at the Anti-Counterfeit Network Uganda Kaweesa Richard has urged government to keep a keen eye on the practitioners of counterfeit and also have solutions to them urgently.
Speaking this,Kaweesa was giving his opening remarks in the first CEO structured dialogue on counterfeit that took place this morning at serena hotel in Kampala.
“The effects of counterfeit are bitter than even HIV.You cant know what the right time it is actually going to spoil you. But in actual sense, it all begins on that very day that you acquire it,” he said.
He said that many people work hard to get good things but when in actual sense even the counterfeiters are fighting hard to deliver their fake products.
“ By the time you are buying something that you have sweated for such a long period of time,the fake product is actually on your door and you really think that you are buying genuine” noted Kaweesa.
The function was also embraced by Hon Justice Gadanya Paul who represented the Chief Justice of Uganda,Bart Magunda Katureebe. Gadanya said that in most African countries , counterfeit law is not empowered.
He added that these laws need to be strengthened and empowered so as to completely deal away with counterfeit goods.
Gadanya went ahead to express his concern on the less number of laboratories as compared to the percentage of counterfeit goods in the country.
“If 80% of goods in Uganda are fake,then I don’t think one laboratory is enough for the country” Gadanya Said
He added that Uganda loses USD4.5b due to counterfeit,something which is not good for the country’s economy.
The dialogue aimed at identifying and devising as well as bridging intervention gaps that enable proliferation of counterfeit.
Under the theme “finding solutions to the counterfeit problem”,the dialogue was designed to allow Civil Societies,brand owners,regulators,customs and commercial diplomacy leaders to submit and present meaningfully addresses to the topic.
The prevalence of counterfeit products,services and sub culture in Uganda and the region is a growing threat to genuine business,foreign direct investment ,employment and the public health
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