From Obinna Odogwu, Awka
Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has issued Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) certificates to 16 companies in Anambra State.
The certificates, it was gathered, cover 36 products, which have been scrutinised and certified fit for the local and international markets by the organisation.
Director General of SON, Mallam Salim Farouk, who issued the certificates to the companies in Awka, the state capital, said that the organisation followed the stipulated steps before certifying the companies and their products.
Farouk, represented by the coordinator of the organisation in the state, Mr Onipede Olanrewaju, said that MANCAP was a mandatory product certification scheme put in place by the organisation to ensure that locally manufactured products conform to the relevant Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) before they’re presented for sale in the market or exported.
“MANCAP was put in place in 2006 and basically, what gave birth to MANCAP was the Standards Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) which is more for offshore goods.
“We now said that if we have to monitor the goods that come from abroad, what of the ones that are manufactured here? And that was why the issue of MANCAP came in. Earlier the emergence of MANCAP, we had NIS Quality. The first award, after two years, you will be given a bronze. After consecutively having a good product, the second award will be silver. After another five years, you get gold. After another 10 years, you get a diamond which is the peak,” he said.