By Merit Ibe
The Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mallam Farouk Salim, has said the agency would intensify its campaign to make made in Nigeria products compete favourably in the international market.
Salim made the remark at SON’s training for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises [MSMEs] and exhibition of MANCAP certified products, where he noted that the agency had over the years put in place capacity building programmes for MSMEs.
He said the discounts, waivers and product’s certification processes extended to MSMEs was to ensure the products and services offered meet the specified standards and able to compete favourably in the international space.
Salim was represented by Dr Richard Adewunmi, SON Marketing Director, during the three days exhibition which was one of the activities to mark SON’s 50th anniversary.
He said SON was also providing proper testing platform for locally produced goods to prevent them from being rejected in the foreign markets.
“This we are doing by equipping our engineering laboratories, the National Metrology Institute in Enugu, the leather and textile laboratories, foods, chemical and electrical laboratories in Ogba Lagos.”
The inaugural exhibition was attended by over 120 companies which had met SON’s certification of standards.
Salim said the agency was constructing new regional offices and rehabilitating old office buildings, while also working closely with state governments to provide land for construction of offices and laboratories to enable prompt service delivery to factories and MSMEs.
“We recently commissioned the Kano regional training facility to provide training services for our stakeholders in the North West and would be commissioning in North-East regional office complex in Bauchi State in a few days,” he said.
While congratulating the entire family of SON both past and present for their service to the nation, Salim traced back the history of the establishment of SON by an enabling Act No. 56 of December 1971; known as the Standards Organisation of Nigeria cap 412 of the laws of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Today, the amended version of the statute, SON Act No. 14 of 2015, has not only given us more responsibilities but has also armed us with the powers to conduct search, arrest, prosecute and seal up facilities where they go contrary to its provisions.
“ The Act also increased the penalties for various degrees of violations relative to the offenses and the value of the goods under consideration,” he added.
He, however, lamented that the current Act was inadequate to serve as a tool to solve the issue of unscrupulous importers of substandard products.
“We need a stiffer and tougher act to punish offenders,” he said
Salim explained that SON was working with the National Assembly to ensure the review of the agency’s Act and appealed for speedy facilitation of the process.
The SON boss noted that Nigerian cable was among the best in the world but lamented that some of the manufacturers were not giving it the needed visibility thus allowing foreign companies to stamp their brand names on them.
He also added that any electronics manufactured with Nigerian cables comes out as a high quality product and stands the test of time.
Director, Lagos Operations, SON, Mrs Talattu Etah, in her address, said the agency was responsible for ensuring that manufacturers adhere to standards in the country.
“Hence our MANCAP and the ISO mark which represent our approval seals for products that meet the required standards of the agency.
“This exhibition is, therefore, organized to showcase some of the products that have gotten the MANCAP seals of the agency, celebrate them and let the public know the importance of the MANCAP seals on any product in the country and encourage those yet to get such standardization seal to immediate commence the process of getting it,” she said.
“My appeal, therefore, to products manufacturers is on the need to get the MANCAP seal for their products, since that engender the much-needed confidence in whoever is buying such product,” added Etah.
Mrs Yeside Akinlabi, Director, South West, urged consumers to patronize made in Nigeria products, saying such development will help to grow the economy.
She noted that made in Nigeria products are certified from raw materials to finished products
Speaking on behalf of the Food Industry Sector, Ada Amogu, Compliance/Regulatory Affairs Manager Flour Mills Nigeria, said that SON had helped in no small way to standardize and regulate the food industry.
“We collaborate with SON, we are industry. We look forward to improvement.”
Also speaking, Blessing Onyeike, BTL Manager, SUMAL Foods Ltd, makers of Yale biscuits, said there was no standardisation in the Nigerian industries before the creation of SON.
“The agency has greatly impacted Nigerian industries positively,” he said.
On the quality of Nigerian biscuits when compared to imported biscuits, the SUMAL foods manager stressed that Nigerian biscuits were made with the finest ingredients and could compete in the international space.
The climax of the event was the presentation of awards to 18 deserving companies.
The majority of the exhibitors urged SON to make the event an annual trade fair to showcase Nigerian products.
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