CAPDAN to rid computer village market of counterfeit wares, criminals

Commissions N10m new secretariat

It will no longer be business as usual for operators of counterfeit wares and criminally minded people at the Computer Village market.

This is because the new leadership of the Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN) will from 2017 and beyond, wage serious war against counterfeiters and criminally minded people, who bring disrepute to the market.

CAPDAN is an umbrella body that represents the interest of vendors, suppliers, manufacturers and association that deals in the sales and distribution of computer and allied products in the market. The Computer Village is the biggest technology market cluster in Nigeria.

The Association stressed the fact that the target has been to make Computer Village market function appropriately by offering the public the best of service and products.

Speaking with The Guardian, the President, CAPDAN, Ahmed Ojikutu, who disclosed that the body has constructed a new secretariat, hinted that the target was to bring the market closer to the people.

Ojikutu, who was elected in July, informed that the new secretariat, which was commissioned alongside a security patrol van and Globacom’s Closed User Group (CUG), said the facility (secretariat) has different departments, which is ready to offer conference and training services.

According to him, the target would also include having on a weekly basis, scholars that will come and educate the market about different aspect of lives, adding that CAPDAN has been able to bring everybody together in the market.

According to him, the fact is that every other associations subscribed to one computer village, knowing full well “that united we stand, divided we fall. So we have come together to ensure we run one united Computer Village market through CAPDAN.”

Ojikutu disclosed that work is still very much on going on the secretariat, “we are to buy large generating set, multimedia equipment among others.

I think by the time we complete this, the secretariat, it should worth over N10 million. The purpose is to use it to serve the entire population of the market.”

With the mindset that counterfeits and substandard goods still flood the multi-billion naira market, Ojikutu said the new CAPDAN is working seriously to reduce the activities of counterfeiters and peddlers of sub standard products, menace, which he said has reduced in the market.

Recall that in 2014, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), which regulates products quality, under the leadership of Dr. Joseph Odumodu, had raided the market to arrest and seal off offices of suspected counterfeiters and peddlers of substandard products.