The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Act 2015, if well enforced, can help rid the country of substandard products. Legal experts examined the Act at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, reports JOSEPH JIBUEZE.
Substandard products kill. From building collapses to knocked engines on lonely highways, using substandard products can have dire consequences.
The Federal Government, through the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), is battling the menace of substandard and fake products, but the problem persists.
Legal experts Dr Paul Ananaba (SAN) and a leading federal prosecutor and law teacher at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Mr Wahab Shittu believe that an effective implementation of SON’s enabling law can help.
They were guest speakers at a stakeholders’ forum organised by SON in Lagos, with the theme: SON Act 2015: enhancing quality, harnessing opportunities.
Ananaba said the SON Act has undergone several amendments since its enactment on January 1, 1970.
According to him, the SON Act 2015 was in response to stakeholders’ clamour for a total overhaul of the 2004 amendment, which did not impose strict penalties for violations.
SON Act 2015 provisions
According to Ananaba, the SON Act 2015 expands the Organisation’s scope by vesting it with additional powers.
The Act saddles SON with the responsibility of evaluating quality, and with powers to establish product surveillance, certification and conformity assessment scheme to ensure that products imported and exported are up to the expected standards.
The Act empowers SON to establish a mandatory conformity assessment programme for locally manufactured products, and to impose fees, fines or penalties on persons who contravene the law.
The Organisation is empowered to register all manufactured products consumed throughout Nigeria, train and accredit institutions, establish a register for national standards, investigate production premises and raw materials to ensure they meet standards, and establish relevant quality assurance systems, among others.
“Quite a number of additional functions introduced by the Act are to assist the organisation in being more proactive in the prevention of substandard products in Nigeria.
“If the structures are put in place to register, track, maintain surveillance and assess the quality of products produced or imported in Nigeria, there won’t be such influx of fake and substandard products in our markets,” Ananaba said.
Penalties for non-compliance
The penalties in the old Act, according to Ananaba, “were grossly incompetent in serving its deterrent purpose”.
“They did not constitute enough punishment for the havoc being wrought by substandard goods,” he added.
The SAN said the SON Act 2015 creates some other offences and imposes stringent penalties on defaulters.
For instance, evasion of fees or levies payable under the Act is an offence which upon conviction attracts a prison sentence.
There has also been an upward review of the penalties.
According to Ananaba, financial liability for most of the offences has been reviewed to N1million, while imprisonment term has been increased.
Ananaba noted that under the Act, the Minister of Industry is vested with power to direct a supplier to recall a defective commodity on SON’s recommendation.
According to him, compulsory product recall was introduced to ensure that consumers are given maximum protection from defective products.
The Act also gives authorised officers the power to stop and search any vehicle suspected to be conveying substandard products.
Such officers can search premises reasonably suspected to be warehousing or storing fake or counterfeit products in contravention of the Act.
SON has the power to designate ports for special entry of goods, in which certain products shall be imported only through a designated port, thus allowing SON to track goods and ensure they comply with minimum industrial standards.
Among others, the Act also empowers SON to destroy substandard goods, impose the cost of destruction on the owner after due notice, and seal up the premises where a hazardous product is manufactured.
‘Strict enforcement needed’
Ananaba believes that an effective implementation of the SON Act will check importers who flood the country with fake goods.
“It was with impunity that people flouted the directives of the Organisation in time past, but that will no longer be tolerated under the new Act.
“Now, where a person refuses, neglects or fails to comply with any directive lawfully given by the Organisation, he commits an offence under the Act.
“In addition to the forfeiture of any article or product seized, he is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N1million or to imprisonment and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not less than N250,000 for every day during which the offence continues,” Ananaba said.
The SAN, represented by the Head of Chambers, Dr. Paul C. Ananaba (SAN) & Co, Mr Okey Barrah, said the issues of standard and quality are so fundamental that they affect everybody directly or indirectly.
“It is good for products and services to meet required standards especially in these days of global competiveness, trade protection or technical barriers to trade,” he added.
Shittu: SON’s huge obligations
Shittu emphasised that SON’s functions cover a plethora of responsibilities.
They include testing of products, investigation of quality, certification, verification, checking of weights and measures on international standard system, standardisation, among others.
These functions, he said, place enormous responsibilities on SON to comprehensively manage product standards.
“A good management, therefore, is needed to execute these functions. The people of Nigeria have been inundated with the fact that the sole problem of the nation is leadership.
“This may be translated to managerial abilities of the functionaries of the Federal, state and local governments. The same goes for corporations established by statutes, such as SON.
“To enhance the quality of products to be consumed by all, SON must live up to its creation.
“In executing its mandate under the statute, it is necessary to deploy fit and proper persons into the organisation. The idea of political jobbers cannot work here.
“Intellectuals with qualifications in the required fields are needed to execute the powers, duties and authorities imposed under the Act.
“This is an intellectually managed organisation. It is not open to mediocre nor to political manipulations,” Shittu said.
The law teacher was of the opinion that sections 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 of SON Act 2015 must be strictly adhered to by the appointing authority.
The minister, he advised, must not allow political exigencies to influence him in many key SON appointments.
“Section 9 allows the D-G to ‘freely manage the organisation in accordance with the Act.’ This is a noble provision,” Shittu said.
Other offences, powers
According to Shittu, the SON Act 2015 provides for a criminal proceeding against any person who violates it by using a fake mark or not complying with the applicable industrial mark.
“By section 28, Ports of special entry are to be designated for the purpose of standardisation.
“Goods or products designated as such can only be imported through such a port. Contravention is criminal.
“A person so convicted pays not less than N2million fine or jailed for five years or both.
“The provision of Section 28 covers both corporate and individual breaches. See Section 28 generally.
“Section 29 allows the Director-General to proceed against hazardous products.
“It prohibits sale of such products, allows the Director-General to apply to court, seal up premises, direct the person to rectify the deficiency, etc.
“The power given to the Director-General herein is novel. It prohibits the police from undertaking this duty, for which they are not familiar,” Shittu said.
According to him, the provision has put paid to hawkers of poisons and their sponsors, who are faceless manufacturers inside and outside Nigeria.
Shittu added: “Section 30 gives the Director-General and SON employees powers to enter upon suspected premises.
“To allow effectiveness, the Director-General is mandated to delegate his powers in writing to his staff.
“The requirement of furnishing returns to SON by manufacturers is novel and effective. This will engender the enhancement of quality for products manufactured by industries, etc.
“Section 31 deals extensively with evasion of fees, levies, etc, and the liability for the offences, same with section 32 and 33.
“Section 34 provides for legal proceedings. It allows SON, subject to the 1999 Constitution, to prosecute offenders as may be necessary.
“Section 35 – 37 deal with jurisdiction, etc. All offences under this Act are to be tried by the Federal High Court.”
Shittu said to enhance service delivery, Section 39 limits lawsuits against the Organisation.
The time to sue SON, he said, is within six months of the commission of damage or injury.
Section 40, he noted, provides that services of processes shall be on the Director-General or by sending it to him at the head office by registered post.
“I am not too happy with this. I believe that a service on any of its offices suffices. This section may not be accepted by our court,” Shittu said.
The leading federal prosecutor commended the general nature of the Act, especially Section 44 that mandatorily provides for the SON Council to submit reports to the minister-in-charge.
“A peculiar mess in corporate governance in Nigeria is impunity and corruption.
“Most heads of federal agencies/organisations operate like emperors, without recourse to the enabling law. Some do not report to their board or council.
“Here, SON reports so published must be distributed to the National Assembly, department of Federal Government or state, etc, and to the general public. This is a check on arbitrariness.”
The respected law teacher believes that if the SON Act 2015 is well managed and enforced, Nigeria can be rid of defective, fake, hazardous and inhumane products.
‘N300b worth of goods seized’
SON Director-General Osita Aboloma, a lawyer, said the event’s theme was in tune with Federal Government’s efforts to turn the economy around.
He described the Son Act as a revolutionary legislation deployed to carry out the Organisation’s mandate.
The Director-General said: “The big hauls of seizures which the agency made recently are testimonial that we mean business by harnessing to the fullest the enormous powers which the Act has accorded us.
“Within the last few months, we have confiscated fake and sub-standard products worth over N300billion across the country.
“We have since embarked on arraignment and trial at the various courts of some of the suspects linked with the impounded goods. We are not resting on our oars.
“We, therefore, appeal to all to be aware of the Act and comply with its provisions, particularly areas dealing with how operators should do the right thing for their businesses to grow.”
Aboloma, represented by SON’s Ports and Border Head, Yaya Burka, said the work of standardisation is aimed at ensuring industrial and economic development.
“Operators are urged to always certify their products quality with SON in order to make made-in-Nigeria products and services good to go anywhere in the world,” he said.
Aboloma reassured consumers of the quality and safety of locally-made and imported goods.
“It, therefore, behooves on operators to deliver on consumers’ expectations.
“All products manufactured in Nigeria must be certified to the Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) through the agency’s Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP), which is subject to legal enforcement.
“All imported products must be certified to the Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) or other approved standards through SON’s Offshore Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP).
“Product registration and certification is a vital tool for product competitiveness.
“SON has internationally accredited laboratories to support export promotion, particularly agricultural products.
“Certified made-in-Nigeria products enjoy both local and global acceptance.
“The SON Act is good for everyone. Please, ensure you do the right thing,” Aboloma urged stakeholders.
