Sanitary Pads Exposé: Nordiq Hygiene Care Cited In Import Misdeclaration?…As Company Dismisses Claims
It is aimed at eliminating one of the silent but powerful barriers to the dreams of the girl-child.
Considered as a bold step towards restoring dignity, confidence, and equal opportunity for schoolgirls in the country, it’s launch fulfilled a commitment made in the 2024 Manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The National Distribution Programme is the name, and it’s aimed at providing sanitary pads for over two million schoolgirls in public basic and secondary schools across the country for free.
The initiative is more than just the distribution of sanitary pads.
To His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama, it is a clear declaration that no girl in Ghana should miss school because of her menstrual period.
That all schoolgirls have access to menstrual hygiene products!
On April 24th, this year when it was officially launched, President Mahama called on the private sector and traditional leaders to partner with the government to build local capacity for sanitary pad production.
An amount of GH¢292.4 million was allocated in the 2024/2025 budget for the supply of sanitary pads to female students in public basic and secondary schools across the country.
But why such an initiative?
The stark reality is that some girls miss up to five school days each month, amounting to nearly 40 days per academic year, due to a lack of access to menstrual hygiene products. FACT!!!
Interestingly, at a joint press briefing by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP),it was revealed that procurement processes had been completed, and that all measures had been put in place to ensure the effective distribution of sanitary pads to all public schools in the country.
And everything was COMPLETED barely five months after assuming office!
The government was specific that it will purchase only locally manufactured sanitary pads.
But can the local market meet the demand? Peacefmonline.com stumbled on an unfortunate piece of information relative to the above question.
Nordiq Hygiene Care, a baby diapers and sanitary pad manufacturer in Tema has been exposed by an investigative report for making import misdeclarations in order to abuse government’s import tax incentives known as CPC 40E73.
The company is known for diapers (Sweet Baby, Koko, Toffee) and Sweet Lady sanitary pads. Nordiq has 2 diaper production lines and 1 for sanitary pads. The monthly production capacity of diaper production lines are more diapers (Sweet Baby, , Koko, Toffee) and Sweet Lady sanitary pads.
But can the local market meet the demand? Peacefmonline.com stumbled on an unfortunate piece of information relative to the above question.
Nordiq Hygiene Care, a baby diapers and sanitary pad manufacturer in Tema has been exposed by an investigative report for making import misdeclarations in order to abuse government’s import tax incentives known as CPC 40E73.
The company is known for diapers (Sweet Baby, Koko, Toffee) and Sweet Lady sanitary pads. Nordiq has 2 diaper production lines and 1 for sanitary pads. The monthly production capacity of diaper production lines are more diapers (Sweet Baby, , Koko, Toffee) and Sweet Lady sanitary pads.
Nordiq has 2 diaper production lines and 1 for sanitary pad. The monthly production capacity of the diaper production lines is up to 10 million pieces and that of sanitary pads is 5 million pieces. That means the company has capacity to produce diapers more than sanitary pads and more than 1000 metric tons of raw materials annually for local production.
Considering that Nordiq hygiene significantly produces more baby diapers than sanitary pads, it goes without saying that the volume of raw materials used for the production of baby diapers is significantly greater.
Import misdeclaration
As part of Ghana government policy to promote local manufacturing, Ghana Customs and relevant government agencies have designated certain raw materials (Fluff pulp, super absorbent polymer, non-woven fabric, PE film, fragrance, and hot-melt adhesive) used in the production of sanitary pads as eligible for import under CPC 40E73.
This Customs Procedure Code allows for exemption from import duties and deferred payment of VAT. This applies to only sanitary pads. But this is where Nordiq has been systematically misdeclaring imports in order to abuse this preferential regime to evade taxes.
For example, according to the investigative report, the past two years, approximately 86% of the company’s imported raw materials were declared under CPC40E73. This means that 86% of their production is sanitary pads.
But this is totally inconsistent with Nordiq care’s actual production ratio of diapers to sanitary pads. This indicates a clear abuse of the policy intended solely for sanitary pad raw material import in order to evade a significant amount of taxes on imported raw material for their baby diapers production lines.
Government demands for locally manufactured sanitary pads for school girls an incentive?
Investigations further revealed that during the months of May and June 2025, Nordiq,which is supposed to be a local manufacturer illicitly imported 49 containers of sanitary pads estimated to be a total of 39 million pieces by misdeclaring them as non-woven fabric weighing about 526 tons. Since Nordiq is not registered to import manufactured sanitary pads, it constitutes a clear case of smuggling and at the same time,falsely classifying finished sanitary pads as raw materials (non-woven fabric),
they were able to clear the goods under a preferential duty regime intended for inputs used in local manufacturing baby diapers. This constitutes a clear case of smuggling and false declaration. And it enabled them to fraudulently and significantly benefit from duty and tax rates, resulting in an estimated US 380,000 in evaded taxes, according to investigators.
Warehouse stocks a mismatch
An insider source has revealed a mismatch at the warehouse of Nordiq between declared raw material imports and physical stock levels strongly supports the investigative report.
They hold a large quantity of finished sanitary pads in its warehouse, far exceeding what could be supported by its declared imports of raw materials. And they imported 49 containers of goods declared as non-woven fabric, with a combined volume of approximately 3,185 cubic meters.
However, the actual stock of non-woven fabric is significantly lower than the declared volume, while finished sanitary pads are present in unusually large quantities.
What is the motivation ?
Government of Ghana recently budgeted a large sum of money for sourcing a large quantity of sanitary pads for young girls in schools. This has lead to bidding by many companies. However government has announced it will purchase only locally manufactured sanitary pads. This may be why Nordiq is importing finished sanitary pads and mislabeling them as raw materials in the hope that it will win a government contract to supply sanitary pads to school girls.
In addition, the incentive is there for the importation of raw materials for the local manufacturing of sanitary pads and since Nordiq is manufacturing more of baby diapers than sanitary pads, they thought it wise to switch diapers for sanitary pads in order not to lose the incentive. The government and people of Ghana in the end are the losers of these shrewd business practice of Nordiq hygiene care.
Advocacy for Corrective Action: GRA MUST ACT NOW
We advocate that GRA and other law enforcement outfits conduct an unannounced on-site inspection of Nordiq’s warehouse to physically verify and reconcile the quantities of finished sanitary pads and imported raw materials, especially non-woven fabric. Any significant difference would provide concrete evidence of misdeclaration and smuggling.
Also, all effort must be made to recover all evaded duties and penalties. All consignments falsely declared as raw materials must be reclassified as finished sanitary products, and the applicable import duties, VAT, and levies must be recovered in full. In accordance with the Customs Act and applicable tax regulations, a penalty of not less than 100% of the evaded tax amount should be imposed.
Based on current estimates, the total liability may exceed USD 5 million, including duties, penalties, and interest.
GRA should also audit import records of Nordiq comprehensively over the last two years to examine patterns of misdeclaration, improper use of CPC 40E73, and include a cross-check with export records from source countries (e.g., China) to validate declared HS codes and cargo descriptions.
If found to be true, GRA should consider Nordiq for temporary suspension from accessing any preferential duty schemes, including CPC 40E73, pending the outcome of the audit and compliance review. Their freight forwarders and any complicit clearing agents should also face investigation and possible suspension or revocation of License.
If this audit is not done and appropriate sanctions applied, Nordiq will continue to undermine the integrity of Ghana’s trade system and encourage other importers to abuse import prevelige and evade duties at the ports.
Also, the large-scale misdeclaration of Nordiq Hygiene care industries constitutes a serious breach of customs and tax regulations. This behavior distorts fair market competition, undermines government policy, and results in significant revenue loss.
NORDIQ FIRES BACK
For purposes of inclusivity and fairness, this site accepted a request from the management of Nordiq Hygiene & Care Industry for adequate time to respond appropriately to the litany of allegations raised.
In an interview with the Managing Director of the company, Dina Safwan Shoueiry, she had this to say on the issue of clever attempts by her outfit to evade the payment of taxes.
“….We are aligned in taxes. We comply with payment, we also conduct auditing. We are hundred percent (genuine). Do you want us to give you all the indices so you can publish them?
I would be gladly, happily, more than extremely happy to open documents. We are the people who are the most welcoming….monthly audits, yearly and not only are we auditing, we pay taxes and sometimes we pay penalties (if we err)….….we are the first company in sub-saharan Africa to manufacture diapers and sanitary pads….. We learn and we are happy to learn. We are not saying that we are 100%…. We’ve done some mistakes when we started and…they have corrected us, and they did not correct us without paying penalties. So when we say that we are genuine, we are truly a genuine company. We have been operating under the laws (of Ghana dutifully),” she stated.
On the specific allegations of importation of 49 containers of finished sanitary pads and mislabeling them in the months of May & June 2025, the MD, while confirming bringing down the exact quantity of materials, flatly denied that they were sanitary pads.
According to her, the goods were “non-woven fabric”, raw materials used in the manufacturing of sanitary pads.
“Why, there is no customs? There is no port?…. Or you don’t believe in Ghana?…. Yes, we have brought in some non-woven because we have supplied; we have produced and we have supplied women pads. It is not for what is coming; it is for what is gone. We have already supplied women pads. Do you understand?….(So the 49 containers) it was a mixture of non-woven because when you want to produce women pads, you need PE film, fluff pulp, you need tissue, there are so many other things that you need to produce. But we always have some in stock because we are preparing for what is coming because as we speak today, we are producing,” she replied.
Reacting to the claim that Nordiq Hygiene deliberately abused Customs Procedure Code (CPC) 40E73, the policy intended solely for sanitary pad raw materials import, Ms Dina Shoueiry dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing on her company’s part, adding that so long as their actions are consistent with the country’s laws, then they cannot be accused of contravening customs rule.
“if it’s something we have the right to use, I’m sure we have…we are exempted because we are producing,” she stated.
To her, the said investigative piece are trumped up, possibly by competitors in the industry because of how low-priced their products are.
“I have a feeling that the whole investigation has been built against me, us, my company. So everything you’re putting is, someone has done the work to destroy my image…. You started with tax evasion, you started with cheating the government, abusing taxes…my friend, I really need to sit with you and you really need to meet me and know who you are talking to. You really really need to do that,” she added
To bring closure to the issues raised and as a mark of sincerity on their part, Madam Dina Shoueiry welcomed the idea of the conducting of an unannounced on-site inspection of Nordiq’s warehouse to physically verify and reconcile the quantities of finished sanitary pads and imported raw materials, especially non-woven fabric.
