GSA To Tag Quality Imported Cables
The Ghana Standard Authority (GSA) has announced its decision to place quality stamps on all imported electrical products that meet quality standard.
According to the Director General of the authority, Prof. Alex Dodoo, the GSA would from next year, certify products, specifically electrical products.
Speaking at a press conference held in Accra, on Friday, Prof. Dodoo said, the move is among other measures to ensure the Ghanaian market is relieved of fake and dangerous products.
“What we have decided and the minister of trade is encouraging us to do is that, we want to do with certain products what we call the import certification so that if there’s a mark on the legitimate product, your brand is protected.
“…come January, when you buy an electrical product you will have some sort of mark to indicate that we have actually looked at them and endorsed them. Products that fail the critical parameter test, would be removed from commerce and destroyed or recycled as appropriate,” he said.
This decision comes after efforts to clamp down on substandard electrical products have proven futile.
Even after companies have been sanctioned and warned from importing substandard cables, Prof. Dodoo noted, the current level of impunity had worsened.
Impunity
Just on Thursday, the GSA in a sweep, impounded some products which did not meet the requisite standards in a two-storey building at Abossey Okai in Accra.
The seized products according to reports could fill about eight 40-footer containers.
Culprits behind the illegalities have since been arrest and would be prosecuted accordingly.
Crises Mood
Prof. Dodoo described the smuggling of substandard products into the country as a crisis situation with emphasis on how alarming high amounts of these electrical product had flooded the Ghanaian market.
“What is worrying is that people were sitting in their houses, taking a piece of metal and putting it into an insulation and then put any label on it and call it an electrical cable.
“This is a criminal enterprise, it is bad and it is asking for trouble and the consequences are all too glaring…houses burning, electrocution, just this week, somebody has been electrocuted in a shower…these sorts of things are happening and we think enough is enough,” he said.
List
To secure the market, the GSA will in a short while publish the names of some 75 electrical and foot ware products on our local that have failed to meet standards.
The Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) has since backed this step.
“The company who does not want to do business based on the laws and regulations of Ghana, I think time has come, pack up and go because we cannot have a situation where people die and we attribute it to witches…we should stop this unnecessary attack on regulators who try to do the right thing by telling them they are destroying somebody’s business,” Chief Executive Officer of CPA, Kofi Kapito said.
Grace Ablewor Sogbey
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