The Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) executive director John Kapito has expressed concern with the rise of substandard, fake and counterfeit products on the market, a situation he fears could result in people buying products in festive period.
The association said this at a time Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CfTC) has also warned market players against unfair tendencies like supplying the market with substandard products meant to bar micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Kapito said some of the substandard and counterfeit products include electronic gadgets, pharmaceuticals and many more which pose both financial and health challenges to consumers.
Kapito said: “As we approach Christmas the market will be flooded with most of these substandard and counterfeit products many of which will also be sold at cheaper prices but offering no economic benefits to Consumers.
“We are appealing to various regulatory institutions especially the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS), to protect the economic and health interests of consumers who will fall victim to these products due to their misleading adverts and lower prices.”
Such situations, according to Kapito, are common this month of December as the deceitful traders prepared themselves to swindle consumers involved in a shopping extravaganza.
Meanwhile, CfTC as warned big players against unfair practices that tend to bar Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) like supplying the market with substandard products.
In a statement when commemorating the World Competition Day on Thursday, CFTC chief executive officer Lloyds Nkhoma said the theme ‘Competition Policy and Inequality’ reflects on market entry barriers MSMEs face due to inequalities and anti-competitive trade practices.
“In Malawi, these inequalities have intensified in the wake of a number of factors including slow recovery from the effects of Covid-19 pandemic and environmental disasters such as Cyclone Freddy.
“In order to navigate through such a market environment, some big companies have resolved to engage in anti-competitive business conducts such as excessive pricing or supplying substandard products,” he said.
In an interview earlier, MBS director general Benard Thole said that the mandate of the bureau is not to monitor daily production stages and processes of companies, but promoting standardisation and quality assurance of products.
“The bureau ensures it safeguards the health of consumers by setting standards and we also conduct periodic checks or inspections, mostly quarterly, to verify if the set standards are being complied with,” he said.
Thole, however, said it is the responsibility of the companies to ensure that they maintain standards in their daily production, stressing that if they find anything to the contrary, proper action is going to be taken.
