GSA to rid market of fake LED bulbs, car batteries, others
By Isaac AIDOO, Accra
The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) has on the occasion of its 8th Scientific Conference assured consumers it has reinforced its efforts at ridding the Ghanaian market of substandard products.
The conference offers staff of the Authority the opportunity to update themselves in a designated area GSA’s services and current activities within its directorates.
The 8th edition was themed: ‘Enforcing the GSA Act: Strategies from Metrology and Inspectorate Directorates’ and aimed at outlining and seeking suggestions and recommendations on how the various organs of the organisation could use the new GSA Act to improve upon their work.
Director-General of the Authority, Prof. Alex Dodoo assured consumers the formation of the Trading Standards Inspectors (TSIs) and the establishment of appropriate laboratories for product testing will fortify consumer confidence by exposing counterfeit products and championing a culture of standardisation in the marketplace.
“LED bulbs are supposed to last for years and I know every Ghanaian will say they don’t last for even two weeks, we just established an LED laboratory and we’re going to make sure those bulbs are removed from the market,” Prof stated, adding “the trend we’ve seen with even car batteries is worrying and we are soon issuing a statement to deal with them.”
Prof Dodoo sympathized with consumers who continue to pay for products which are of poor quality and hardly would last for the expected time span. He described as unfair and criminal some trading practices which had become normal for many traders.
“There are several products where the weights stated on them do not match the actual weights tested in the laboratories which means consumers are being short-changed because if you state that the product is 1kg and its actually 800 grammes you have cheated the consumer by 200 grammes which is 20% of their money gone down the drain and that is illegal and unfair,”
Previously an internal event, the scientific conference has been restructured to make it accessible to the public, through the media and other channels, aligning with the GSA’s functions outlined in the Ghana Standards Authority Act 2022 (Act 1078).
As Ghana’s National Standards Body, National Metrology Institute as well as the National Conformity Assessment Body, the GSA has a critical role to play in Ghana’s socio-economic development. We believe in embracing scientific and technical expertise across various disciplines, including the humanities, as a catalyst for national development.
