Built for the categories counterfeiters target
The mechanics differ by category: a refilled oil bottle is not the same problem as a swapped hangtag or a cement bag cut with filler. These guides set out what actually happens in each, with sources — and what verification can and cannot do about it.
Pharmaceuticals
Medicines are the category where counterfeiting kills. They are also the category where a verification that takes ten seconds, or needs an app, simply will not happen at the counter.
Read the guideAgricultural Inputs
A farmer who buys a counterfeit pesticide does not find out at the till. They find out at harvest, when the season is gone and there is no second chance until next year.
Read the guideAuto Parts & Lubricants
Africa's vehicle parc is growing faster than its official parts channels, and the gap is filled by an aftermarket where a counterfeit brake pad sells for a third of the genuine price. For a parts or lubricants brand the damage is doubled: the failure is blamed on you, and the warranty claim often lands on you too..
Read the guideSpirits & Beverages
No category is refilled as systematically as alcohol. Your empty bottle, with your label and your closure, has resale value the moment it leaves the bar — and what goes back into it has killed people across the continent.
Read the guideCosmetics & Personal Care
Cosmetics are among the most copied consumer goods in African markets, and among the most dangerous to copy. The channel makes it worse: much of the trade runs through salons, market stalls and social-media sellers rather than formal retail, so there is no shelf for a regulator to police and no receipt for a consumer to return..
Read the guideElectronics & Accessories
Electronics is one of the categories the OECD identifies as most targeted worldwide, and in African markets the damage concentrates in the cheap, high-volume accessories nobody inspects: chargers, batteries, power banks, extension boards and adaptors. They fail in ways that burn houses down, and the brand on the housing takes the blame..
Read the guideBuilding Materials
Construction is where counterfeiting stops being an economic problem and becomes a structural one. Kenyan investigators have documented genuine cement being siphoned from properly packed bags, repackaged into counterfeit bags and adulterated with filler — and the building that results does not fail on the day it is built..
Read the guidePackaged Food & FMCG
Fast-moving consumer goods are counterfeited at a scale the seizure numbers only hint at. Nigeria's NAFDAC reported destroying counterfeit and substandard products valued at about ₦1.5 trillion following 2025 raids, across categories from bottled water to rice.
Read the guideApparel & Footwear
Apparel and footwear are, by volume, the most counterfeited goods on earth: clothing, footwear and leather goods together account for 62% of all counterfeit items seized globally. For African fashion labels and for international brands selling into the continent, the problem is the same — a hangtag is trivial to copy, and a customer paying real money has no way to know..
Read the guideSolar & Energy Equipment
Sub-Saharan Africa is the centre of the world's off-grid solar market, and most of what is sold moves outside any quality-verified channel. Counterfeit and substandard kit is often visually indistinguishable from the genuine article, sells at around half the price, and fails within months — which damages the reputation of solar itself, not just your brand..
Read the guideAnother category?
The OECD now finds counterfeiting across roughly half of all traded product categories, so this list is not exhaustive. We also work with medical devices and diagnostics, veterinary and animal health products, industrial chemicals, toys and tobacco. Tell us what you make and where it is sold, and we will walk you through how verification would work for it.
Talk to our team