Saddled with the responsibility of uniform standards in trade within West African States, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP) have partnered to match standards for air conditioners and refrigerators.
The agencies outlined the need for a uniform standards as it will help address technical barriers to trade in the continent, pointing out that generally acceptable standard would go a long way to boosting intra-African trade.
The Director General, SON, Osita Aboloma, who was represented by the Director, Corporate offices, Electronic Department, Engineer Richard Adewunmi at technical meeting in Lagos, recently noted that the revised standard would set the minimum requirements for energy performance standards of power consuming appliances in all the member nations that forms the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
According to him, acceptable standards is one of the ways to checkmate the influx of substandard goods, explaining that the certificate issued by the technical harmonisation committee will be acceptable anywhere.
“If you leave Nigeria to other countries in West Africa, they will demand that you comply to their own national standards, but the ECOWAS in its wisdom has directed by its Heads of States. We started the Eco Stamp five years ago. We are picking some electro technical standards and harmonising them to boost intra-African trade and would also stand as some critical standard for products going in and out of the market,” he said.
The representative of NESP, Ene Marcham, stated that there is a need to come up with a message that gets to end users, manufactures and importers of air conditioners and refrigerators, saying that if the message is passed across in the right way there would a high level of sustainability in the long run.
The Chairman, Nigeria National Committee, Ayodele Afolabi, said that with the move, Nigeria would be achieving a regional standard that will be adapted in a local market and from the trade point of view, products from Nigeria can easily be marketed outside the shores of the country.
The vice president, Nigeria Society of Engineers, Tadil Gadari, said the society is in the forefront of supporting the creation and adoption of the nation’s standards to make sure that energy is efficiently used all around the country.
The Nation recalls that SON recently harmonised the standards for honey to boost its production and marketability, which mandated honey producers to adhere strictly to standards that meet expectations of consumers at the global market, while also producing quality products for the domestic market.
