GTP, West Africa’s leading African wax print & textiles manufacturer has called on government to put in place more stringent measures to prevent the counterfeiting and smuggling of registered designs of Ghanaian textile manufacturing companies.
[contextly_sidebar id=”dMhNAnUuUCwPJZi5KFosSkiunfPA9B7c”]According to the MD of GTP, Kofi Boateng in the past, counterfeiters simply stole GTP designs and placed their own labels on them but now they duplicate designs, labels and other trademark properties.
GTP in a bid to deal with the matter has launched the GTP “Oga”.
Oga which stands for original, genuine, authentic is a consumer promotion to reward its loyal consumers.
Speaking to Citi Business News Managing Director of GTP Kofi Boateng said the activities of the counterfeiters is causing the nation to lose significant revenue.
“The cost is quite enormous every sale that is supposed to be GTP, that is not, we lose some income and government also loses some taxes in terms of VAT and income taxes as well. So it is not only a cost to us GTP but is also a cost to the nation because we are not able to produce and sell more and employ more people, our employment opportunities are reduced meaning less people are employed, less income tax to the government then the national kitty also suffers.”
Kofi Boateng told Citi Business News GTP came out with the Original, Genuine, Authentic ‘Oga’ promotion to help customers know if the GTP they bought are original or counterfeit.
As part of the GTP Oga consumer promotion consumers can instantly authenticate GTP fabrics they purchase by texting the 12-digit unique security code found under a scratch panel on each product’s label to free short message service short code 1393 on Vodafone, MTN, Tigo and Airtel.
In all over 6,000 loyal consumers will be rewarded with smart phones, airtime and GTP Fabrics.
Mr. Boateng said ‘there is nothing more annoying than paying good money for what you believe to be genuine, authentic GTP African wax print, only to discover some time later that you’ve actually got a fake. The cloth you have bought is neither an original GTP design nor made in Ghana. In fact, it is not even African at all, and the design has already began to fade after only a few washes. What do you do?’. He said.
The promotion is running on the mPedigree platform, a global leader in the use of web and mobile technology to protect brand-authenticity on manufactured goods.
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By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana