Development of SMEs: SON Signs MoU with Katsina State, Plans To Take standardisation To Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, Sokoto States
L-R: Special Adviser to Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr. Emeka Duru; Director General, SON, Mallam Farouk Salim; Director, Standard Development Directorate, SON, Mrs. Chinyere Egwuonwu and Deputy Director/Head, Public Relations, SON, Mr. Bola Fashina during SON capacity building workshop for journalists in Lagos on Tuesday July 27, 2021.
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Katsina State government to develop the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the State, stressing that discussions are also ongoing to take the gospel of standardisation to Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi and Sokoto States to make SMEs competitive.
As part of renewed efforts to rid the Nigerian market of Substandard products, SON is forcing some steel manufacturers to get back hundreds of tons of iron rods from the market to melt the rods to come up with standard specification, that conforms with the laid down regulations.
Director General, SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, while making his remarks, noted that building collapse under construction has drastically reduced, which is attributed to the improvement in the quality of building materials.
Salim pointed out that the response from various market associations and stakeholders from different sectors indicate that the quality of goods have grossly improved, especially steel and cables.
The DG SON, stated this at a one day capacity building/workshop organized for journalists themed “Improved synergy to promote standardisation” in Lagos.
He called on consumers to always reach out to SON should they have issues of purchasing goods online, stressing that monitoring goods online can be very difficult.
“We have offices all over the country and you can bring these goods and the receipts for us to clarify these issues, so that we can go back to these online dealers to seek redress,” he said.
He noted that the essence of the workshop is to appreciate the media and their contribution to the progress of the agency and the country in general.
“We are also using this medium to interact and discuss issues that bothers both the media and the standards body,” he said.
On the level of seizures made so far, the SON boss added that its level of seizures has increased tremendously, maintaining that responses from stakeholders and market associations indicate that SON is winning the war against substandard goods.
“The stakeholders response is very good and recently we have studies where steel products quality has also increased very much as we get this information from contractors and dealers. We are getting very good responses from stakeholders and the markets about the quality of steel products and cables,” he added.
He also reaffirmed SON’s commitment to strengthen its partnership with the media urging journalists to also act as vanguards in its fight against fake and substandard goods.
In her presentation, the Director, Standards Development, Mrs. Chinyere Egwuonwu, said the Nigeria National Standardisation Strategy (NNSS) introduced last year with a 3 year implementation plan had so far identified 658 standardisation projects to be developed before the end of 2023.
She said the NNSS aims to support the federal government’s Economic Recovery Growth Plan and Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP).
