Fake Goods, Real News – How criminal organizations are plundering half a trillion dollars from Africa through counterfeiting?

Leading edge technology companies and leader in the cable and optical fiber industry join forces addressing counterfeits, adulteration, and graymarket activities.

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: 28.10.2021
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), officially launched in January 2021, is now the largest free trade area in the world. As a single economic entity, the AfCFTA is the 8th largest economy in the world and is represented by its Secretary General, H.E. Wamkele Mene. One of its objectives, in addition to boosting the Intra-African Trade, is to eradicate counterfeit and illicitly traded products from its 54 member States. By implementing new and innovative technologies, the AfCFTA will bring security and trust back into everyday trade and limit the unintended consequences of trade liberalization and transition the continent into one of the safest and most trusted in the world.

During the 4th Edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII), in January 2021 in Riyadh, the FII, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and OriginAll signed a LOI to combat counterfeit and illicitly traded products within African member States. This rapidly evolved in the signing, in April 2021, of a 5-year deployment agreement, signed by all three parties, to implement the OriginAll aggregation platform across all AfCFTA member States.

The OriginAll aggregation platform will offer users the means to differentiate authentic from fake and trace illicitly traded products regardless of the authentication method adopted or imposed on brands.

On the occasion of the 5^th Edition of the Future Investment Initiative, OriginAll, Authentic vision and Nexans have joined forces. The parties have agreed to harness their collective efforts by on-boarding Nexans as a supporting brand and Authentic Vision as a fully integrated technology partner to the AfCFTA Secretariat initiative to provide authentication means for all the AfCFTA State parties and their citizens. The cooperation is part of a holistic effort that will ultimately benefit over 1.2 billion people, protecting the national interests of AfCFTA Member States, stimulating innovation, investment, the development of manufacturing and the safety and wellbeing of the AfCFTA citizens.

“Thanks to the support of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the FII, we have been able to bring together impactful stakeholders to implement our partnership with the AfCFTA. We are honored and thankful to each party for their participation and are convinced that this is only the very beginning of a groundbreaking approach to solving one of the world’s most devastating issues.” Hans J Schwab, CEO & co-founder, OriginAll.

“Authentic Vision’s mission is to safeguard companies and consumers and enable incredible experiences that securely bridge the digital and physical world. We are extremely proud to be the first technology provider to enable this for the people and the continent of Africa through the AfCFTA initiative.” Thomas Weiss, CEO & Founder, AuthenticVision.

“Nexans goes beyond cables to offer customers a complete service that leverages digital technology to maximize the performance and efficiency of their critical assets. This alliance is not only aligned with our mission and values, but actively contributing to the health and safety of the African continent makes us very proud.” Patrice Sieuw, General Manager GCC, NEXANS & CEO Qatar International Cables Company (QICC).

“This is a major milestone in AfCFTA’s initiative to provide a concrete solution in the fight against illicitly traded and counterfeit products. Empowering citizens from the African continent to differentiate a fake from a genuine product is game-changing.” Patrick McGee, Managing Director, Africa, OriginAll.

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About Nexans
Nexans S.A. is a global leading company in the cable and optical fiber industry headquartered in Paris, France. The group is active in four main business areas: buildings and territories (construction, local infrastructure, smart cities/grids, e-mobility), high voltage and projects (offshore wind farms, subsea interconnections, land high voltage), data and telecoms (telecom networks, data transmission, FTTx, LAN cabling, hyper scale data centre solutions), industry and solutions (renewable energies, petroleum, railways and rolling stock, aeronautical and automation).

About Authentic Vision:
Authentic Vision provides anti-counterfeiting and authentication technologies designed to protect organizations’ investments in product innovation, brand value and reputation while creating new opportunities to increase trust and engagement with consumers worldwide. The company’s unique Holographic Fingerprint™ tag, mobile authentication app and real-time analytics capabilities protect physical assets from counterfeiting and alert brand and product owners to potential fraudulent activity. Their anti-counterfeiting and authentication technologies help to minimize lost revenues and mitigate liability due to counterfeits and create new opportunities to engage with consumers through loyalty programs, incentives and future experiences that bridge the physical and digital.

About OriginAll:
OriginAll, S.A., a corporation duly registered in Switzerland, has been cofounded by experts in the field of product security and traceability. OriginAll develops aggregation platforms that allows users to verify the authenticity of a product, regardless of the solution adopted by a brand. OriginAll does neither compete with, nor favor any particular traceability solution, nor does it intend to disrupt already deployed or imposed solutions and programs. Rather, it creates their interoperability to offer governments and consumers a single, transparent, self-financed source of product verification, product information and data correlation.

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Authentic Vision Contact:
Maria Kraft
Marketing Specialist
maria.kraft@authenticvision.com
+43 67686862486