Unilever, NAFDAC team up to fight counterfeit 
Protection of Nigerian brands:
As part of its commitment to ensure the protection of both consumers and genuine manufacturers, Unilever has pledged to support National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in the fight against counterfeit products in the Nigerian market.
The two organisations met last week, as fighting counterfeit products was top on their agenda with Thabo Mabe, managing director, Unilever at whose instance the meeting was arranged, acknowledged that steady progress had been made in that direction but advised NAFDAC not to rest on its oars on the efforts to eliminate counterfeit.
Elimination of counterfeit from the market means protecting corporate intellectual property. "We will continue to ensure that this is achieved," according to Mabe, and if Nigeria must be competitive, industries have to contribute to regulation efforts to ensure standard.
The Unilever managing director noted that advantage of eradication of counterfeit was that intellectual property owners would be excited to promote their products.
Mabe, who exposed the NAFDAC officials to safety workings and took them round the company's facilities, stated that Unilever products touch every family everyday and therefore "to us doing good is doing business." According to him, the company, which has presence in 170 countries, operates on a single framework which means that it is the same product in all the markets.
The managing director, who disclosed that last year the company internationally spent about 950 Euros on research activities, said the company had been in Nigeria for a long time and "so it is no more transactional business for Unilever, but we are part of this country."
In his response, the director general of NAFDAC, Paul Orhii, appreciated Unilever for inviting them to the meeting, saying "when companies invite us and not wait for us to knock at their doors, it demonstrates that they are companies that do things right. This is a friendly visit. We are coming here not to assess your facility and close it down, we are coming here as friend to Unilever and if possible offer solutions on how to do things better.
"Right now, the organisation is trying to implement radio frequency identification technology. Unfortunately, for products like yours which are not on the high end in terms of price, it is not feasible to apply the technology because it is not economical," Orhii stated.
A chip costs about N15, but "if you apply this on a product that sells for N50 for verification, it is not realistic but we are working out a solution and negotiating and discussing with international players to make chip affordable to wipe out counterfeit product.
"We are trying our best to make sure those counterfeit products do not come here to take over market share and destroy Nigerian brands. We will work with you in every possible way to make sure that your business thrives," the NAFDAC boss promised.
