Africa-Press Nigeria
Most mobile phones and accessories such as chargers and batteries found being sold in the country are either counterfeit or substandard products.
This is according to a report by Auditor General Mildred Chiri following her visits to various shops in Harare, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls and Beitbridge.
Some of the phone accessories only last for two days and these are mainly found at the popular Gulf complex in Harare, according to the report.
The mobile phones and accessories were substandard or counterfeit because they were labelled in a foreign language and did not have proper labelling that indicated conformity to required standards such as CE.
“Audit inspected 32 shops in Harare, 15 shops in Bulawayo, 4 shops in Victoria Falls and 5 flea markets in Beitbridge which were selling sub-standard mobile phones and accessories,” Chiri said.
“I also inspected for quality certification labelling on the mobile phone chargers and noted that some had no certification labelling.
“The selling of counterfeit mobile phones and accessories was due to smuggling and non-detection at border posts.
“The reason for non-detection according to ZIMRA officials, was because importers were using split consignment techniques.”
Split consignment techniques involve instances in which traders import products at market value below $1 000 using different people to avoid costs associated with obtaining a Consignment Based Conformity Assessment (CBCA) certification.
