129 Consumer Verification System for Authentic Product: Case Study of Manufactured Product John B. Oladosu University of Ibadan, Ibadan / Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Ogbomoso, Nigeria johnoladosu@gmail.com Damilola A. Taiwo Department of Computer Science University of Ibadan, Nigeria damijeeconfirm@gmail.com Christopher A. Oyeleye Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria caoyeleye@lautech.edu.ng ABSTRACT The problem of fake products by counterfeiters and unregistered manufacturers is real and constitutes a major threat to the health and safety of the Nigerian population. A descriptive study was carried out on the present means of identifying authentic products and fake ones by the members of the society in this work. The sources of information for this work include online journals, NAFDAC sites and face to face interviews with members of the society both student in the University of Ibadan and consumers in Ibadan and its environ. All the respondents agreed that there is a fake and counterfeit drug problem in Nigeria, and many considered this a major problem. The respondents commonly used visual security techniques before drug purchasing. These were: Seals/embossments, character of print, and mobile authentication system. The respondents’ most likely action after a counterfeit drug encounter was to return the drug back to the supplier. The study showed that consumers should be giving privileges to authenticate products before it is being purchased or consumed. There is an indication that the present system (such as NAFDAC registration number and Mobile Authentication System) has limitation to achieve 100% authentication process since the system can be copied by counterfeiters. This study proposes a solution to the limitation of the existing system by developing a bar code authenticating system. The system uses 13 digit code consisting of a series of vertical bars of variable width that are scanned by a laser; printed on consumer product packages, to identify the item from a computer that provides the information about the product and registers inventory information. This system gives a 100% authenticity and trust to the society because there is no two products that can have same barcode and this code cannot be easily guessed by counterfeiters or uploaded to the consumer's verification system database. CCS Concepts • General and reference ➝ Cross-computing tools and techniques Expereimentation Keywords Authentic Product, Consumer Verification System, Counterfeit Product, NAFDAC 1. INTRODUCTION Since inception, product manufacturing has been a way to increase production and distribution of consumable products in Nigeria and beyond. This process has assisted manufacturing companies in Nigeria to get their products distributed and consumed. Over the time manufactured products have gone wide into all parts of the countries, that even existing products were re-produced by other manufacturing companies for distribution. Soonest this act turned to a menace to global economies as counterfeiting. Counterfeiting became a common thing in our society, claiming lives of people through the use of fake manufactured food and drugs [1]. Counterfeiting can be described as the act of making a copy of already existing product with an intention to deceive the consumers of that product. Synonymous to this is faking or forging [2]. Counterfeiting results in distribution of fake, cheap, and substandard products, that causes havoc to the consumers. Counterfeited products were first reported in 1968, which mean people have been dying since around 1970 from effect of this problem [3]. When mass production of counterfeited goods was detected in Nigeria, the government declared war against counterfeited goods by setting up an agency to monitor, screen and test for authenticity of products either imported or manufactured here in Nigeria. This team was named National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), with the mission and vision to sa feguard public health, and to eradicate fake manufactured products from Nigeria. Manufactured products include the following food, drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, detergents, medical devices and drinks including bottled water [4]. In 2001, Dora Akunyili became the head of NAFDAC and one of the things she first did was to stamp out corruption in the agency. After succeeding she moved forward to the major mission of NAFDAC, which is to safeguard the public health by ensuring that only the right quality food, drug and other regulated products are manufactured, exported, imported, advertised, sold and used [5]. An incidence occured in 1995, when Nigeria reportedly donated 88,000 doses of meningitis vaccine to its neighbor Niger Republic. Before the authorities realized that these vaccines were fake, about 60,000 (Sixty Thousand) people had been "inoculated". Akunyili said that when she took office in 2001, fake drugs were openly circulating in Nigeria. This is the same way fake manufactured products are circulated concurrently in and outside Nigeria [6]. 1.1 Background The legal right of every consumer is the right to verify any manufactured product before the product is consumed. This process is to encourage the producers of this product to monitor their production work before final distribution, control the number of manufactured product during production so the product would CoRI’16, Sept 7–9, 2016, Ibadan, Nigeria.