The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has stated that the agency will not compromise on its mandate to ensure that only goods that meet the minimum requirement are allowed to thrive in the nation’s market.
The agency in a statement stressed that SON’s recent policy direction and partnerships with relevant regulatory agencies aimed at stamping out illegal, fake and sub-standard products in the country will no doubt bring down the influx of substandard goods in no distant time to the barest minimum.
The agency said, “There is no action without a reaction” sating that this aptly describes the exploits of the SON in recent times which aimed at checking the nefarious activities of purveyors of fake and sub-standard products across the country.
Head, Inspectorate and Compliance Directorate, SON, Mr. Bede Obayi, said, “those who have skeleton in their cupboards should indeed not be comfortable with the agency’s recent policies.”
The statement gathered that over 80 per cent of sub-standard products existing in the country are imported from overseas by unscrupulous Nigerians who are bent on making profits at the detriment of the safety of lives of common Nigerians and consumers.
Obayi said genuine importers have been collaborating with SON to do the right thing, adding that there was no way that the organisation had stifled economic growth with its policies, as wrongly alleged. He said the integration of SON’s processes and certificates into the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System [NICIS] recently, was primarily aimed at reducing to the barest minimum, the incidence of sub-standard products circulation in the country.
Earlier, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through a Circular referenced TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/018 of September 22, 2015, had directed all operators and importers to key into the system latest by December 1, 2015.
SON, under the guidance of the NICIS Project Implementation Team of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) trade monitoring system and the CISS, had embarked on a nationwide “train the trainers” sensitisation programme to all the geo-political zones of the country to sensitise bankers, importers, cargo owners, stakeholders and the general public on the conversion of SONCAP’s paper certificates into e-certificate format and their integration into NICIS as input for processing Form “M” and Pre-Arrival Assessment Report [PAAR], which were vital for clearance of goods at the port.
He also said in the spirit of capacity building and necessity of stakeholders’ collaboration, the agency equally extended the training workshops to members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents [ANLCA] across the country on e-SONCAP processes to further consolidate on its promise of putting to a final stop the importation and circulation of imported sub-standard products in the country.
It would be recalled that recently, the members of Nigerian Shippers Council, Lagos State Chapter raised the alarm over SONCAP, a necessary document by SON for clearance of all imported products into the country.
According to SON officials, the processes put in place are for the benefit of Nigerians “because the agency has a mandate to ensure that only safe and quality products have their way into the markets.”
Obayi equally debunked the spurious claims by the shippers association that Nigerian ports have since been abandoned by the genuine importers due to charges by SON and other regulatory agencies.
“As a matter of fact, SON is right now not operating at the ports. What we have insisted upon is that all products and services within and outside Nigeria must conform to quality and standard requirements. This is one of the ways to grow the economy contrary to what the economic saboteurs are claiming,” he said.
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