Are you concerned about counterfeit cable, and want to know how to recognise it before procurement for your projects? The topic of counterfeit cable products is a prevalent issue in Africa, and it is an unfortunate truth that even now these unsafe, non-complaint cables are being sold in the market.
Africa is known for the widespread use of substandard electrical cable as there is lack of regulation and not all countries have the ability to verify cable compliance to standard. Research has shown that electrical products, specifically cables are one of the most common counterfeit products in Africa. Cables imported from China are recognised to be the predominant source of poor-quality cable products entering the continent, followed by the Asian cable imports making up most of the remainder however, locally manufactured counterfeits were also reported from countries such as Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ivory Coast etc.
Dangers Of Using Counterfeit Cables
  • Low Fire Performance and Highly Combustible – When it comes to fire safety, counterfeit and substandard cables impose a major threat. Did you know that counterfeit cables are known for passing off riser cable as plenum cable which regularly fails the flame and fire resistance tests due to its little or no heat protection. The non-complaint cables are manufactured from materials that demonstrate lower levels of fire performance and are known to be highly combustible. Consequently, when there is rapid spread of fire and dense smoke, it makes it extremely difficult to evacuate and rescue the civilians in the building causing risk to public safety and even death.
  • Lack Reliability of Network Performance When it comes to network performance, application of sub-standard and counterfeit cables can result in poor performance issues. Counterfeit cables are recognised to often use copper-clad aluminium conductors rather than annealed copper. These conductors are not only non-complaint, but also known to be brittle and easily cause breakage, moreover, they cause twists. As a result, there is poor network performance, even within short distances.
Risks of Using Counterfeit, substandard and non-Complaint cables.
Counterfeit, substandard and non-compliant cable products impose serious issues to public safety and can result in liability issues. Utilisation of non-compliant cable products for your projects is a very expensive risk, which can result in civil liabilities such as fire safety concern for consumers, and monetary damages from endangering lives of the consumers. As a contractor, it would be considered as the result of gross negligence, breach of contract and warranty, illegal violations of local and country building laws and regulations. Although you may be cutting costs by buying counterfeit and non-compliant cables for your projects, you are exposing yourself to legal or criminal action being taken against you.
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