A Ghanaian consumer protection campaign will hold its first regional rollout in Koforidua in November, urging shoppers to verify products before paying as counterfeit goods keep circulating nationwide.
The Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult’s “Trust Economy – Verify Before You Buy” campaign will hold the engagement in Koforidua, Eastern Region, in the third week of November, the organisation said during a stakeholder briefing in Accra. The event is set to combine consumer education, market activations and partnerships with regulators, manufacturers and law enforcement agencies, building on a series of advocacy events the campaign has run in and around Accra since it launched earlier this year.
Dr Chris Kpodar, executive chairman and chief executive of Solomon Investment Ghana Limited, who also sits on CDA Consult’s board, said verification remains the simplest defense against fake goods. “An informed consumer is an empowered consumer,” he said, adding that regulators cannot solve the problem alone and that consumers need practical tools rather than warnings. Kpodar, who the organisation also describes as an artificial intelligence specialist, is an unusual voice for a counterfeit-goods campaign, reflecting the initiative’s effort to draw support from beyond the consumer-advocacy sector.
Nationwide figures on the cost of counterfeit trade in Ghana are not routinely published, but recent enforcement actions point to its scale. Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority destroyed counterfeit pharmaceutical products worth GH¢42 million seized in the Volta Region earlier this year, including fake antibiotics and other medicines intercepted at the Ghana-Togo border and during market inspections.
CDA Consult’s executive director, Francis Ameyibor, argued that halting counterfeit imports at the border alone has become close to impossible, framing consumer purchasing decisions as the more realistic point of leverage against fake goods.
The Koforidua engagement marks the campaign’s shift from Accra-focused stakeholder meetings, including an August session in Tema and public comments on a counterfeit-plantain ripening scandal, toward its first activation outside the capital. CDA Consult said the rollout will work alongside the Food and Drugs Authority, the Ghana Standards Authority and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority.
