Our Reporter
As part of its core mandate of enforcing standards, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has stated that the level of compliance of manufacturers and importers of products in the country has risen to 50 per cent in two years.
SON attributed the success recorded in standards war to its aggressive sensitisation programmes across the country, promising that it would deepen its engagement with stakeholders in the import business.
Represented by the Director, Inspectorate Compliance and Directorate, SON, Engr. Obiora Manafa, at a one-day maritime stakeholders’ sensitization workshop tagged “Facilitating trade through SON’s automated services,” the Director General, SON, Osita Aboloma said, “For the past two year, we have had a high level of compliance from the importers.
We can say up to 50 per cent since we came in and it shows that the sensitization is really helping us to achieve our mandate.
In this event, we have traders, manufacturers, importers and freight forwarders who are the middlemen between the regulatory agencies and the importers. So we are trying to preach to the importers to do the right thing.”
Aboloma stated that SON is also trying to prevent these importers from contravening the laws, saying that the agency is currently deploying a proactive approach to change the mindset of dealers in illicit trade.
“We are trying to be proactive in the sense that we are trying to prevent them from contravening the laws. We want to prevent them from bringing in substandard goods.
We want to protect the lives and property of Nigerians, because we do not like destroying these goods, but that is our last resort because if we allow these products into the market, people will buy, so we want to even stop them from even bringing in the bad products so that we do not destroy.
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It is a loss to the individual, it is a loss to the importers. The essence of this sensitization is to continually create awareness and preach to the operators in this industry to obey the laws by doing the right thing,” he said.
He also announced that plans are ongoing to set up regional laboratories in the country, pointing out that the laboratories would help to bring standards closer to the people
“The Director General is very serious with that, because of the proximity of our laboratories. We have laboratories in Kaduna, Enugu, but we are looking setting up more laboratories regionally so that it will be close to farmers and manufacturers,” he said.
He expressed concerns over unscrupulous manufacturers and importers who forge SONCAP certificates, payment receipts and Director General’s approval, warning that SON would stop at nothing to prosecute people who indulge in this nefarious act.
“A lot of people are in jail now and a lot are under detention for forging our certificate, SONCAP, payment receipts, Director General’s approval and this is not encouraging.
We are appealing to these importers not to engage in forgery. SON is open to any one who wants to do serious business.
Our doors are open for you to come and process any form of approval. It does not cost you anything. Our documents are easy to process, they are not expensive. We are business facilitators,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, the Founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Boniface Aniebonam, urged importers to work with SON to discourage the importation of fake and substandard goods.
According to him, importers of these goods with no economic value are economic saboteurs, appealing to importers and manufacturers to always seek SON’s technical support before carrying out their operations.
The Executive Chairman, Alaba Electronics, Mr. Paulinus Ugochukwu, said his administration is ready to support SON in its fight to eradicate fake and substandard goods in the country, saying that all hands are on deck to ensure SON achieve its mandate to bring down the influx of substandard goods to the barest minimum.
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