Airtel yesterday announced a partnership with Sproxil to combat the counterfeit drug market in Africa. Sproxil’s Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA™) solution allows consumers to verify product genuineness within seconds through a text message.  Airtel will offer this service absolutely free to its users and not charge for any SMS based verification.

Sproxil’s service works by placing a scratch-off label on products, and then when consumers purchase a product, they scratch off the label to reveal a unique, random code. The code is then sent via SMS to a country-specific Toll Free short code, and the consumer receives a reply almost instantly indicating whether the product is genuine or not.