Counterfeit tonner and cartridges worth Shs25bn destroyed
Mr Samuel Ojobira an enforcement police officer attached to URBS displays some of the counterfeit cartridges at the Nakasongola off-site grounds in Nakasongola District on Thursday were the products were destroyed. PHOTO BY DAN WANDERA
What you need to know:
- The identification of the counterfeit computer accessories is a big problem with several of the customers falling prey to the unscrupulous traders dealing in counterfeit. Because the HP and Canon products command the market in the printing industry, the unscrupulous dealers print and label the boxes to confuse the customers.
The Uganda Registration Services Bureau in collaboration with the Trans-World Protection Group has destroyed the last cycle of the seized Shs25bn worth counterfeit tonner and cartridges at the UPDF managed off-site disposal ground in Nakasongola District.
The last batch of the seized HP and Canon counterfeit tonner and cartridges weighing about 12 tons and valued at Shs8.4bn was on Friday September 3, 2019 destroyed at the National Environment Authority off-site disposal ground managed by the UPDF under the Luweero Industries as part of the crack down on the dealership for the counterfeit computer accessories launched in January 2019.
The tracking and crackdown targeting disguised Ware Houses where the counterfeit HP and Canon tonner and cartridges were being repackaged at different locations within Kampala for sale according to the URSB head of operations and enforcement, Mr Alex Tumuhairwe, is yielding fruits.
“You rarely find the counterfeit HP and Canon tonner products on open display with the famous Nasser and Nkrumah road dealers in Kampala City after the major operations where we seized 60 tons worth Shs25bn of the counterfeit products. We have successfully completed the last cycle of the seized computer accessories but the operations will not stop. Several of the suspects were arrested and successfully prosecuted including three dealers who were convicted,” Mr Tumuhairwe told the Daily Monitor in an interview on Friday.
The unscrupulous dealers have reportedly taken advantage of Uganda’s porous borders and the corrupt tendencies at some of the check points to smuggle in computer accessories that have no trade mark.
“These products are later repackaged to hoodwink the suspecting customers who need the genuine HP and Canon tonner and cartridges. We managed to locate a Warehouse in Bugolobi, a Kampala suburb where the counterfeit was being repackaged disguised as genuine HP and Canon tonner products,” Mr Peter Masinde, the Consultant with Trans- World Protection Group, an international company working with the URSB to track and identify the counterfeit HP and Canon products, told Daily Monitor.
The identification of the counterfeit computer accessories is a big problem with several of the customers falling prey to the unscrupulous traders dealing in counterfeit. Because the HP and Canon products command the market in the printing industry, the unscrupulous dealers print and label the boxes to confuse the customers.
“We cannot claim to have completely wiped out the counterfeit because the loopholes are many and we call for a joint effort to have the problem of piracy countered. We also discovered that some of the counterfeit finds its way into Uganda and then it is repackaged and taken to Kenya, South Sudan, and Rwanda among other countries. We are working to have some of these loopholes sealed,” Mr Masinde added.
Mr Edward Ssenteza, a stationary dealer said that the operations should not only target the local dealers but cast the net wide to arrest the big dealers who he claims are connected to some officials at border custom offices.
“Some of the counterfeit products go through the custom border checks where they are possibly cleared. Once the big dealers are arrested, the problem of counterfeit could possibly be reduced,” Mr Ssenteza who deals in stationary and printing services on Nasser road in Kampala, said.
