Anti-Counterfeit Network launches Bleep App to safeguard consumers

Despite numerous efforts aimed towards combating counterfeit trade in Uganda, tangible results remain far-fetched. This is majorly because of limited man-power of the regulator and ignorance of the consumers.

The Anti-Counterfeit Network is taking the lead and recently unveiled the Bleep App, a digital platform to bridge the intervention gaps between consumers, manufacturers and the regulators.

Fred Muwema, the Chairman of the Anti-Counterfeit Network speaks on this innovative platform and how it seeks to combat the rampant vice.

1. What is the Anti-Counterfeit Network (ACN) and what are its efforts in combating counterfeit in Uganda?

Almost a decade ago, ACN was born. We came together with other professionals to collaborate in providing a formidable front to fight counterfeit, substandard and illicit trade. We realized that there were several communication gaps between the different market actors which was why counterfeits were flourishing on the market.

Our main rallying point is that the buying and selling of counterfeits is a mindset problem which requires a behavioral change campaign. Such a campaign should not be targeting the symptoms but rather the cause.

ACN is offering a platform called Bleep, to bring together key stakeholders who affect and are affected by counterfeits to combat this deadly epidemic in a cost-efficient manner.

2. Why is the vice on the increase despite efforts from respective stakeholders like UNBS and Uganda Police?

Unfortunately, efforts currently are channeled towards addressing the symptoms. When you conduct an enforcement and arrest a trader for selling counterfeits or substandard products, you are tackling the symptom not the root cause.

You need to find out why those products are selling and why people are buying them. So, we have not been doing the right thing to combat this menace which is a worse epidemic than Covid or even terrorism because counterfeits claim more lives than both those things combined.

Experience shows that counterfeit trade is growing exponentially with some statistics showing that it grows at more than 1100% every 10 years. Whereas world trade accounts for about $30 trillion, trade in counterfeits accounts for about 15% of that, up from 1% in 2010, it’s really growing.

So, we need a community ecosystem to counter this threat and this must involve all the market players. You need to have the consumers working together with the brands and the regulators for effective information sharing and enforcement.

The reason why some enforcement actions are resisted by the public, is because they (the public) don’t understand the exercise or know the dangers of counterfeit. But if you get the public involved in reporting then they cannot resist the enforcement action.

So, we are looking at Bleep as a collaborative approach towards the fight against counterfeits and substandard products with every market actor on board.

Bleep is the only platform in the world which facilitates the reporting of suspected counterfeits, the verification of these reports and the taking of remedial action, all in one place. It is not enough to get the reports, follow up action must be done.

3. Elaborate on Bleep and why do you think it has the potential to tackle the counterfeit menace?

Bleep is a modern digital application using cutting-edge technologies to provide a robust anti-counterfeit solution. Many consumers find it very difficult to report counterfeit cases, so Bleep will make it easy for them to report from the convenience of their home etc using their mobile phone.

Secondly, Bleep enables easy verification of these reports by the brands and regulators, which in turn facilitates redress action. Currently it is very costly and time consuming for brands and regulators to investigate and enforce against counterfeits. Bleep is going to change all that by easing the flow of information from the public to the brands and regulators.

Additionally, we have partnered with Cypheme, a global leader in providing counterfeit detection solutions using AI and deep trace technology. Cypheme has embedded their solution into Bleep by creating a scannable but tamper proof Bleep sticker to be placed on a product so that consumers can verify the authenticity of a product at the point of purchase. We shall work with brands and regulators to place and use the secure Bleep sticker which also has a GPS to ensure that consumers can authenticate products before they purchase.

4. The food sector is arguably one of the most affected with several counterfeits, how will Bleep safeguard the consumer’s food from the garden to the plate?

Firstly, I would like to highlight that counterfeit and substandard food is probably the most dangerous. How it occurs is that you will have food from the garden which is sprayed with counterfeit or substandard chemicals or pesticides and those in animal husbandry also deal with fake feeds, antibiotics, acaricides etc.

So, a lot of food we eat is contaminated in the garden even before it reaches the market. Then we have poor post-harvest handling, then the production and processing which also suffers contamination.

So, for the first time, someone who encounters food which they suspect to be counterfeit or substandard, can just take a picture or video of that food and post it on a dedicated platform which is   Bleep. That report will be ticketed and followed up in the backend with the concerned brand/regulator for verification and remedial action. We believe this will go a long way in exposing and reducing the cause and effect of food contamination we are experiencing now.

5. Uganda is an entrepreneurial country but a chunk of its businesses is probably thriving on counterfeit goods. How does the new Bleep initiative help mitigate this state of affairs?

Unfortunately, some of those businesses are thriving by stealing other people’s ideas or duplicating other people’s products. You don’t have to infringe on someone’s innovation to be an entrepreneur, so we need deliberate efforts to weed out such fake enterprises, and Bleep is providing a platform to do so.

We need to weed out these fake entrepreneurs and safeguard our business ecosystem, which then will enable us to easily access a variety of premium products.

Currently the premium products which are well regulated on the market are being taken out of business because of unfair competition from counterfeiters, I know a company which was in the plastic sector worth about $100m, which closed some years back and hundreds of jobs were lost. So, Bleep should promote genuine entrepreneurship backed by a public which reports the fake entrepreneurs.

6. Despite Government Agencies like UNBS and Uganda Police enforcing against counterfeit products, tangible results are farfetched, how will Bleep slot in?

Bleep is going to supplement and support government agencies in all their legal surveillance and enforcement measures to combat counterfeits and substandard products. We all know that Government Agencies are resource constrained so they have limited capacity to reach everywhere and apprehend the culprits.

Bleep is going to turn the public into a community of detectives who will report valuable information on counterfeits for brands and regulators to act. Information gathering on counterfeits has been very difficult but Bleep will ease this pain if it is put to good use.

We hope that the Government Agencies will embrace this platform and consumers and brands remain active in reporting and verifying with redress action following suit. Our target is firstly to increase the reported counterfeit cases from the low figures of just 1000 cases in the country per year to at least 10,000 cases in the first year. With this kind of trajectory, we can then talk of reducing counterfeits and substandard products on the market by 50% in 3 years’ time.

7. Illicit Trade is responsible for billions lost annually and this affects the country’s GDP, would you say Bleep has come in handy to avert the situation?

Bleep can be used as a market governance and policy tool to mitigate the negative effects of counterfeits and substandard products on the public health and economy. So Yes, Bleep can come in handy to avert the situation where sometimes the Government appropriates money for development projects but only to lose this money to shoddy works supplied with counterfeit and substandard materials.

Bleep has the potential to thrive because it converges and addresses the pain points of the consumers, brands and regulators on one platform. So, if we tap into our mobile phone connectivity of 30 million handsets in the country, we can effectively leverage this digital media to provide a robust counter measure against counterfeits. In our view, the ultimate winner in all this will be the selling and buying of genuine products.

8. What is your message to manufacturers and other Ugandans out there?

I would like to first debunk one myth.  It is not true that combating counterfeit will deny the local population access to affordable goods. Counterfeits appear cheap but they are very expensive because they will most certainly rob you of your wealth and health in the short or long run. That is a very expensive consequence to bear.

We urge every brand and regulator to join Bleep so that they can track and address the concerns of their consumers when they report suspected counterfeits on the platform. For the case of brands, this will help to recover any market it may have lost to the counterfeiters and also help to restore public trust and confidence in their products which is being eroded by counterfeits. For regulators, Bleep will help them to exercise their statutory mandates more effectively after they receive information from the public and act on it.

The fact of the matter is that every product faces a counterfeit challenge. This makes all of us victims, including the counterfeiters themselves. I don’t think there is any counterfeiter who would like to consume contaminated food or medicine!

Therefore, we urge you to download the Bleep App today. It is now accessible to Android users with the IOS enrollment underway. You can also find it on the web at bleep.ug.Feel free to share your photos, videos and messages of suspected counterfeit and substandard products on Bleep. This is how we shall create a counterfeit free Uganda.