SON Impounds N480m Substandard Phone Accessories
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria says it has confiscated substandard phone accessories worth over N480m.
The Director, Inspectorate and Compliance Directorate, Obiora Manafa, disclosed this on Thursday after the agency carried out a raid on a warehouse in Lagos.
He said the goods confiscated included telephone chargers and adapters. He said the raid was based on a tip off from its intelligence unit.
Besides,he added that the raid was to ensure that consumers got value for money spent on goods and services, while also restating its commitment to rid the country of substandard products.
Manafa said, “We are here to show the public what we seized this morning from a big warehouse in Lagos. It stocked fake telephone accessories. We worked on the information we got from our intelligence reports, and we saw this large consignment and started evacuating them.
“What we have evacuated already is about N480m worth of substandard telephone accessories such as chargers and adapters. They are all fake and they fake major brands because they know these brands are doing well in the markets and the worst of it is that they write the names of these successful brands on the faked products to deceive the unsuspecting consumers.”
Recall that the SON last month urged importers of electrical products to invest in products that could be manufactured locally.
He added, “This is why when you buy phone chargers, it stops working under a week after purchase. So you continue to buy chargers every week. To us, this does not make any sense. Instead of them to create their own brands by coming to us to get the standards and produce in line with the requirements of the standards, they choose to smuggle these goods in without SONCAP certificate.
“People will buy your own and they will identify with your brand. We have seized these goods and we would subject them to laboratory test and those that are supposed to be destroyed, we will get court orders and destroy them.”
Manafa added that most of the substandard goods that come into the shores of the country were without SONCAP certificates, adding that unscrupulous importers cut corners by dodging the SONCAP requirement to smuggle the goods with no economic value into the country.
“The problem is that most of these goods do not have SONCAP certificates, but most times they dodge the SONCAP and smuggle these goods in. Smuggling is another problem we are battling with, but we have told them that wherever these goods are stocked, we would find them. We are empowered by the SON Act 2015 to get into any premises where substandard products are stored and we would confiscate them and arrest the owners,” he warned.
Manafa said, “It is an offence to fake people’s products, it is an offence to bring in substandard products and we would not rest till we get substandard products out of our markets. In this case, these goods belong to many importers and we are going to identify them.
“It is a Herculean task to identify the good and the bad one, but we are appealing to people that anytime you want to buy, if you are confused, reach out to SON. We are ready to identify the real products.”
