EXCLUSIVE: Fake Products, Port Congestions Killing Our Business, Solpia Nigeria Cries Out

Solpia Nigeria Limited, makers of X-pression hair attachments, has called on the Federal Government to rescue the company from collapsing as fake products and port congestions were negatively affecting the survival of the company.
The company revealed this while reacting to an exclusive report by ekohotblog.com on the mass sacking of the company’s employees earlier this month.
It could be recalled that ekohotblog.com had exclusively reported that over 5,000 employees of Solpia Nigeria Limited were given letter of termination of contract. The company in the letter of termination of contract given to the employees sited harsh economic realities as the reason for the mass sacking of its employees.
According to the company’s Secretary, Prince Azubuike Onyekwelu, he confirmed the mass sacking of its employees adding that, it would take effect from October 31st.
He said “It is a fact that we issued a notice to Amalya Consult for contract termination which will take effect from October 31, 2019. Amalya Consults never outsourced five thousand workers to us. The total number of workers they have with us is one thousand, one hundred and twenty-six (1,126). At the end of the restructuring exercise, we are going to retain some of the outsourced workers.”
Onyekwelu sited congestion at the port as a major reason for the downsizing and restructuring the company was embarking on, adding that, the congestion has hampered the company’s ability to export to its foreign customers and import raw materials.
“Our export business has drastically plunged due to ports congestion. Our raw materials get stuck at the port for a long time, which hampers optimum production. Due to the delay in delivering to our foreign trading partners, they (foreign partners) stopped placing orders from us. This has affected us and also the foreign exchange coming into the country,” he explained.

In the same vein, the Assistant Marketing Manager, Okechukwu Ihedioha, noted that fake products in circulation were also hampering the company’s ability to stay afloat.
He said “We are battling with two categories of fake products here. The first are those who buy original tags from hairdressers, and they use these tags to produce our products. Those will always have the same features as that of our products. The second category is the imported ones from China. They print their tags and try to copy as much as possible the features of our products. No matter how the people in this category imitate our products, there are always tell-tale signs that they are fake.
“However, our greatest concern is those that import from China because they have a better quality than those that just bought our tags and imitated our products.
“Our operations and output are affected by the people that fake our products, especially X-pression Ultra Braid and Rich Braid. We have been fighting this issue for a long time now, but all our efforts seem to be in vain.
“As part of our efforts, we met with China, and we also took our complaints to the Manufacturers Association of Nigerian (MAN), but nothing was done. We also try as much as possible to enlighten the consumers by showing them the features to look out for when buying our products. We have our hologram on our products to distinguish it from fakes. We have an airhole also which enables the consumers and hairdressers to feel the products before buying it. All these things help make our products unique, but because the fake ones are cheap, some people still buy them.”
The Chairman of the company, Femi Ajanaku, stressed that the issue was worsened when the company was short of raw materials to produce and counterfeiters took advantage of the company’s lack of production.
“Nobody likes laying off workers. That is not our culture here. When things were going well, we were employing almost every week. Now, that is no longer so. Sometimes, we give our workers technical leave for close to a month because our raw materials get stuck at the port. Sometimes, these materials stay there for close to six months. When we no longer have materials for production, those selling fake products take advantage of this. Our brand has become a household name in the market, and there is always a demand for it,” Ajanaku said.

The Chairman however, appealed to the government to address the issue of incessant importation of foreign goods at the detriment of the locally produced ones.
“We are urging the government to take this issue seriously. You can’t keep encouraging the importation of finished products from China and expect your economy to develop. By doing so, you are killing the businesses here while paying China workers for the finished products they bring into the country,” he said.