The Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA CONSULT) has urged the public to always check expiry dates before purchasing goods.

The Executive Director of the CDA Consult, Francis Ameyibor, who gave the advice, encouraged consumers always to follow basic purchasing protocols, which included verifying batch numbers, manufacturing and expiry dates, examining seals and verifying supplier legitimacy before purchase.

“When consumers become active actors—not passive recipients—they create market pressure for compliance, reduce liability for all actors and disrupt the normalisation of unsafe or substandard goods,” he said.

The campaign

He was speaking during a strategic engagement in Accra with potential partners of his nationwide consumer protection advocacy campaign dubbed, “Verify Before You Buy".
CDA CONSULT is currently stepping up mobilisation for the roll-out of the campaign, which is a national progressive consumer protection advocacy campaign designed to shift the market dynamic from passive consumption to active verification.

“This campaign aligns with modern regulatory thinking: shared responsibility, risk-based verification and behavioural bumps that change outcomes at scale.

“Ghana’s goods market has grown faster than its verification culture.

When buyers fail to check, retailers do not enquire, regulators become overloaded and enforcement lags, allowing counterfeit and unsafe goods to circulate with minimal risk to sellers, Mr Ameyibor observed.

Consumer protocols

“We can’t keep treating consumer protection as something that starts after harm occurs.

The campaign initiative shifts the responsibility for action to an earlier stage in the purchasing process.

“Check the product, check the seller, check the label, be sure of the expiry date.

That’s how we can change the market dynamics together.

“Unfortunately, traditional consumer protection relies on post-harm remedies and assumes manufacturers, dealers and sellers will self-police,” he stated.

Mr Ameyibor stressed that such information irregularities at the point of sale, dangerous assumptions about safety and delayed enforcement were problematic, adding that without real-time checks and credible deterrence, unsafe and counterfeit products would persist.

"Your mobile device is a verification machine in your hand; utilise it to protect you and your family,” Mr Ameyibor advised consumers.

He said through the advocacy, consumers would be educated to utilise basic verification models, stressing, "Safety cannot be outsourced entirely. In complex supply chains, the consumer is the final checkpoint.”

He stressed that the campaign targeted a problem that cut across markets, shops and online platforms: counterfeit goods, expired products, mislabelled items and outright fraud, all of which persist because responsibility for verification is unclear.

Mr Ameyibor explained during the engagement that the advocacy collectively moved responsibility for product safety from a purely supply-side obligation to a shared consumer-producer accountability model.

“The goal is to make pre-purchase verification a social norm, while ensuring that violations trigger fast, credible consequences.

“It seeks to equip consumers with the knowledge, tools and mandate to verify product integrity before purchase; the initiative reduces harm, eliminates dangerous assumptions and drives higher standards across manufacturers, dealers and retailers," he explained.

Mr Ameyibor expressed concern that most consumers failed to take the basic necessary precautions during purchases, stressing, "don't use your money to buy a bad product which will end up affecting your health; just a simple verification can save your life.”

He called for partnership, saying, “the campaign is open to partnerships with trade associations, consumer groups and development partners willing to adopt the verification standard.”