Son Restates Commitment To Expose Promoters Of Substandard Goods
By Lucy Ekpenyong
The standard organization of Nigeria (SON) has reiterated her stands to burst the bubble of promoters of substandard goods in the country.
The Director General of the organization, Salim Farouk gave this assurance at an interactive workshop and capacity building for journalists in Lagos with the theme: Improved Synergy to promote standardization, Salim stressed the desire of his administration to strengthen enforcement through increased cooperation with relevant authorities to improve on service delivery and enhanced relationship with the police, National Assembly, sister agencies, stakeholders and the press.
The SON helmsman promised to lessen red tape and provide a level playing field for stakeholders.
“We as an organization our job is to work with the federal government to ensure that the ease of doing business is adhered to because we don’t want bottlenecks, we don’t want to be bureaucratic that stops people from achieving their legitimate goals.
“We have done so many changes over the years for example we have a whole warehouse right by the ports where container of goods that are suspicious are kept instead of blocking them in the ports and delaying legitimate businesses from coming through, we just take them to our warehouse and because we have a very reliable and efficient laboratory in the country, we do our test if the goods are okay we release them, if they are not we show the individuals how to fix them, if they are not fixable we destroy them which is our legitimate mandate by the government and National Assembly” he stressed.
Furthermore, he said the organization is in touch and working with most Association from Alaba International, ASPAMDA, Ladipo Market, Continuously reaching out to markets in Kano and Nnewi, interacting with them to ensure best practices to meet the needs of consumers.
On the issue of influx of stuffed substandard tyres into the country, he stated that “We have various levels of sanctions for confiscated tyres in our organization, if there is difficulty in tracking the actual owner of a product, sometimes we use the Association and sometimes we grab the person on ground and then try to use the police to investigate the source of the product. In most cases, when we get to warehouses where there are illegal items apart from ceasing those items we always have the company pay fine running into millions directly to the Federal Government Central Account, TSA and also confiscate all the tyres that are stuffed.
Highlighting major strides and achievement since September 26, 2020 to July, 2021, Farouk pointed out that arising from a stakeholder retreat earlier this year. A strategic plan to guide the activities and programme of SON from 2021 to 2024 was approved, the capacity of the National Metrology institute is enhanced with acquisition of New equipment for calibration activities in diverse areas of measurement like flow, volume.
Also, he added that his regime is in support of the federal government’s policy on the ease of doing business, standards for railways, Timber and timber products, steel stakeholders in Lagos, Kano, Asaba on strict adherence to standards.
The DG maintained that the relationship between the SON and the media will continue to be strengthened until the fight against substandard and fake goods is won.
Other professional in charge of various departments in the organization also made presentation at the workshop emphasizing on efforts aimed at improving life through standard.
In her presentation, Mrs. Chinyere Egwuonwu, Director; SON Standards Development revealed that “The Nigerian National Standardization Strategies approved by the Standard Council of Nigeria was instituted due to constant improvement in science technology and innovation. The strategy is meant to ensure the needs of stakeholders are met”.
