How to protect your product from counterfeiters in Africa

What counterfeiters copy

In October 2026, Uganda's National Drug Authority (NDA) arrested two people in Kampala accused of making counterfeit antiseptic solutions used in surgery. Officers seized over 200 litres of the solutions, along with thousands of empty containers and counterfeit brand labels. Printing businesses allegedly printed NDA registration numbers on the products.

In May 2026, Kenya's Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) warned of a falsified batch of the breast cancer medicine Phesgo. The batch number, C5290S20, does not match any Roche batch, and the vials hold a white powder instead of the liquid Roche supplies.

In August 2025, Promasidor Nigeria reported fake sachets of its Cowbell Our Milk. The fakes used the brand name, the packaging, the NAFDAC registration number and the trademark without permission.

A registration number on the label does not protect you on its own: counterfeiters print that too. The steps below are the parts you control.

Register the product in each country

Each country has its own regulator: NAFDAC in Nigeria, the Food and Drugs Authority in Ghana, the Pharmacy and Poisons Board in Kenya, SAHPRA in South Africa, TMDA in Tanzania and the NDA in Uganda. Register the product with the regulator in every country where you sell it, and keep each registration current.

A worked example: Nigeria

• NAFDAC issues a registration number and certificate after the product passes its quality tests. Registration is valid for five years, subject to renewal.
• NAFDAC's general requirements include a trademark registered in Nigeria for the brand name.
• At Nigeria's Trademarks Registry, a 2023 practitioner guide sets out the steps as an availability search, filing, examination, publication in the Trademarks Journal and a two-month window for opposition, followed by the certificate. It puts the usual time at 12 to 24 months.

Read more in NAFDAC registration numbers and what counterfeit means.

Register your trademark

A registered trademark gives you the exclusive right to use your brand name and logo on your goods. You can file in three ways:

• National offices: file with the trademark office of each country, as in the Nigeria example above.
• ARIPO: the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization registers marks under the Banjul Protocol. You file one application, at ARIPO in Harare or through a member country, and name the countries you want. The Banjul Protocol countries are Botswana, Cabo Verde, Eswatini, The Gambia, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. A registration is valid for 10 years and can be renewed for 10 years at a time.
• OAPI: the African Intellectual Property Organization covers 17 member states in West Africa, Central Africa and the Indian Ocean, including Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali and Niger. Its Bangui Agreement sets one central procedure for marks. You file at OAPI in Yaoundé or at its liaison office in any member state.

Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa are not on either list above. In those countries, file with the national office.

Record your rights with customs

In some countries, you can record your trademark with customs or with an anti-counterfeit agency. Officers can then act against copies at import.

• Kenya: the Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) records intellectual property rights for goods imported into Kenya, under section 34B of the Anti-Counterfeit Act of 2008. You or an appointed agent apply, and the recordation is renewed every year. ACA says it is an offence to import goods bearing a right that has not been recorded with it.
• South Africa: under the SARS policy on counterfeit goods, effective 30 September 2025, you apply to register with Customs for protection against the import and export of counterfeit goods. Customs detains suspected copies and notifies you and the importer. You confirm by affidavit whether the goods are counterfeit, then arrange their destruction.

Ask a lawyer in each country where you sell whether customs recordal exists there and what it costs.

Build protection into your packaging and label

Print batch details and dates the same way, in the same place, on every unit. In its alert on the fake Cowbell sachets, NAFDAC listed batch details printed in ink instead of by laser, and coding outside the coding area, as signs of the fake.

Then add anti-counterfeiting methods. The common ones are:

• Tamper-evident seals: breakable caps, foil seals and shrink bands that show whether a container has been opened.
• Holograms and security inks: visible features your customers and distributors can inspect by eye.
• Unique codes: each unit carries its own code, which a customer verifies online or by phone.
• Tags in the label or cap that a phone reads with a tap.

The EU Intellectual Property Office publishes an Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Technology Guide covering 46 technologies, including RFID, NFC, DNA coding and laser engraving. No single method covers every risk. Combine a tamper-evident seal with a method your customers can verify.

With Batach, you can protect your product with anti-counterfeiting methods that anyone can verify with a phone at batach.io/scan. Whichever method you choose, print short instructions on the label. Customers can only use a method they know about.

Watch the market

• Make test purchases of your own product in each country: in open markets, pharmacies and supermarkets, and from online sellers. Compare them with retained samples from the same batch.
• Track retail prices. A price below your distributor price can point to fakes, stolen stock or expired goods.
• Search social media and online marketplaces for your brand name and photos of your product.
• Treat customer complaints as leads, and ask for the batch number and where the product was bought.

Work with distributors and retailers

• Publish a list of your authorised distributors in each country and update it.
• Record which batches go to which distributor. When a fake or diverted unit turns up, its batch number tells you where to look.
• Collect expired and damaged stock and destroy it under supervision.
• Show your sales teams and key retailers what your real product looks like, and what to do when they see a copy.

Report counterfeits

After Promasidor's report, NAFDAC published a public alert listing how to tell the fake Cowbell sachets apart, and told its zonal directors and state coordinators to remove the fakes from the market. The same steps apply wherever you find a copy:

1. Collect evidence: the fake product, photos, receipts, the seller's name and location, and the batch number.
2. Compare it with your retained samples and write down every difference.
3. Report it to the regulator in the country where you found it, and to the anti-counterfeit agency where one exists, such as the ACA in Kenya.
4. Speak to a lawyer about action under your registered trademark.
5. Tell your customers what to look for, using the same signs you gave the regulator.

See how to report a fake product for each agency's contact details.