The Nigerian Standard Council has given the Standards Organisation of Nigeria its backing to implement its various initiatives aimed at ridding Nigeria of substandard and fake products.
The Chairman of the Council, Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha, who led a team on an inspection of the various projects being undertaken by SON to build capacity for accurate testing of products in Lagos on Monday, expressed the support while addressing journalists shortly after the tour of the facilities.
Among the facilities was a new laboratory complex being built in the Ogba area of Lagos at the cost of N950m, and scheduled to be completed in December.
The tour later moved from the complex to the Lagos office of SON where the head of operations in the state and Assistant Director with the SON, Mrs. Elsie Ofili, listed inadequate staffing and logistics, among other challenges, as areas where assistance was expected.
At the Lekki office, SON’s Director-General, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, said the various initiatives embarked upon by the management since he became the helmsman had resulted to a sharp reduction in the volume of substandard products in the polity.
According to him, the pursuit of the agency’s zero tolerance for substandard products importation and distribution underlined the building of the various testing capacities.
He told the Council’s team during the guided tour of the laboratory and warehouse at the office that much cooperation and support would be needed from the council, if SON was to achieve the programmes highlighted.
The new council, saddled with the supervisory role of ensuring that the agency activities were on track, was inaugurated in March 2012.
Mustapha commended the agency’s management over what he described as the huge capability displayed and the determination to rid the country of substandard goods and services.
He expressed the commitment of the council to ensuring training and retraining of SON staff members.
He said going by what the team had witnessed, he believed Nigerians would soon start witnessing a new era, where products produced and bought in Nigeria would meet the standards required, without fear.
The Vice Chairman of the Council and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Investment, Mr. Dauda Kigbu, said the team would pay similar visits to the various zonal offices in the country, including Enugu, Kaduna and Port Harcourt, as part of its supervisory duties.
He assured the public that SON would not compromise standards, stressing that whatever was needed to be done to ensure that the agency carried out its assignments diligently, would be done by the council.
