Ghana’s Kasapreko Company Limited has suspended a planned $50 million investment in Nigeria, one of the largest markets for its popular Alomo Bitters, due to the adulteration of the product.

“We wanted to make a strong foot print in Nigeria and we have not cancelled the ambition but once we are able to get rid of those destroying the market and harming the lives of the people through faking of our product then we can decide to put the factory in place,” the company’s Group Managing Director, Kwabena Adjei told Nigerian media platform, Vanguard, in Accra, Ghana.

Delaying conrete plans

Adjei, while conducting the media company round of its factory in Accra, said that the plan was to establish its manufacturing plant in Nigeria, but threats from counterfeiting has reduced the brand equity of Alomo Bitters.

He explained that not only the company was suffering from faking of its products, the government was also losing revenue. “If we don’t fight the fake, we are hurting the government because fakers don’t pay tax. We are harming the consumers because fakers don’t use good product. Some of these fake products have been tested in our laboratory and I tell you that the result is shocking and unhealthy to consumers,” he said.

economic cost of faking

Nigeria loses an estimated N15 billion annually to fake products in terms of tax revenue to the government, income to local manufacturers and employment generation to Nigerians, according to the director, Legal Services, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Suleiman Kawo. SON also says 40 percent of goods in the country are counterfeit.

Adjei recognized Nigeria as a very important market for the company in Africa and is therefore collaborating with regulatory agencies and distributors to tackle counterfeiting.