Business community blames UNBS on substandard goods in shops

Retailers engage with UNBS over standards. PHOTO URN

KAMPALA, UGANDA | Retailers in and around Kampala have blamed the continued presence of counterfeit and substandard products in their stores on the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS).

This comes as the standards monitoring body moves to engage the private sector on how best to curb the illicit trade in both local and imported products.

During a dialogue at the UNBS headquarters, it was proposed that the agency focus its efforts on importers and manufacturers of these products, ensuring compliance before they enter the market—instead of primarily targeting supermarkets and other retailers.

Other traders said UNBS takes too long to give the standards mark, the Q-mark, which allows them to put the products on the market. In the due course, the manufacturers use the documents from UNBS which show that the certification process is ongoing, to convince the retailers that their products have been approved to go onto the market, but are yet to get the Q-mark.

However, according to Asiimwe Brave, the manager of Tendo Yerusalemi and Zion Supermarkets in Mukono and Lugazi, when UNBS inspectors raid the shops, they confiscate all the products.

He says that now he knows that only goods bearing the Q-mark are supposed to be stocked when they are locally made.

On her part, Judith Akello, the proprietor of Lamema Supermarkets in Nakawa Division, said the UNBS should intensify the sensitization of the business community because many of them violate laws ignorantly. She says, for example, that there are many things she did not know about the packaging of her in-house products, like at the bakery within her supermarket, until UNBS told her of what was required.

The UNBS says that it has decided on this approach to, first of all, learn from the challenges the different business segments face regarding the enforcement of the standards. The UNBS appreciates that some the business community do not have knowledge about their operations and that sensitisation is first of all needed, so that during enforcement, those in the wrong will appreciate why they are wrong.

Sylvia Kirabo, Head of Marketing and Public Relations, says the program targets both local and imported goods. According to her, there are more issues regarding imports because the importers find challenges in meeting the requirements under the Uganda Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) system. PVoC requires that goods destined for Uganda are inspected and verified for standards in the countries of origin or before they cross the first entry point into the region.

Kirabo says when goods come into the country without the Certificate of Conformity, they are destroyed at the cost of the traders, who then feel unfairly treated, because they do not understand the system, while others find it hard to get the PVoC agents who are appointed by UNBS.

UNBS says some goods are smuggled into the country and admits that sometimes the agency fails to crack down or stop the uncertified goods from entering the country because of the limited capacity. He adds that when such goods enter the country they are supposed to undergo all the certification process, and on failure to meet the procedure, they have to be destroyed