Senate committee promises SON’s return to ports

By Our Reporter

The Senate Committee on Industries has restated its commitment to return the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to the seaports.

It said in other climes, standard regulatory bodies are well represented at the ports to check the quality of goods before they gain entrance into their various markets, saying that Nigeria cannot be left out of this trend.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Industries, Senator Bayo Osinowo, who spoke during an oversight function of SON’s laboratory complex in Ogba, said it is quite unfortunate that SON is not at the port, adding that the law establishing SON states that the standards body must be present at the ports to monitor the standards of products being produced and imported into the country.

“It is unfortunate that SON is not at the port, when we set SON up, it was to monitor all the standards of the products produced and imported into the country, but when we found out that SON was not at the port, we have decided to address this by looking into it and amending it because there must be an office for you at the ports for you to carry out your mandate effectively.”

The legislature will look into the matter and amend it where necessary,” he said.

He said the purpose of the oversight function was to assess the level of work done by SON after being appropriated public funds to carry out their mandate to improve lives through quality assurance.

“The purpose of coming here is to see for ourselves and do appraisal of SON activities, especially on your projects.   We came to see how you have utillised and managed the funds given to you.  I must confess that going by what I have seen so far, I am very impressed with the level of work done so far. We are ready to support SON to ensure that all the projects in the laboratory must be completed soon,” he said.

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According to the senator, if supported, SON will help to boost the manufacturing sector of the economy while also eradicating poverty by creating job opportunities for the nation’s teeming unemployed youths.