SON Wants Return To Seaports

The Director General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria(SON), Mr. Osita Aboloma, has reiterated the need for the agency to be returned to the seaports.

He said this during a meeting with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Adeniyi Adebayo and the Minister of State in the Ministry, Ambassador Maryam Katagum, recently.

Aboloma, while enumerating the organisation’s challenges, stressed the dangers SON’s absence from the seaports were causing the nation. According to him, SON’s presence at the seaports would enable it undertake quality verification and prevent the influx of substandard and life threatening products.

In addition, he said lack of funding for the completion and equipping of the National Metrology Institute in Enugu and improved staff to strengthen the 42 state and six regional offices, were other challenges the agency was facing.

However, he listed SON’s achievements to include a robust development process for market-driven standards as well as championing the harmonisation of standards within the West African Region and the continent to promote seamless trading across borders.

He listed some other achievements to include near completion of an ultra-modern laboratory complex in Lagos as well as a National Metrology Institute in addition to an existing Engineering Laboratory at Enugu and a Textile and Leather Laboratory located in Kaduna as part of the development of the National Quality Infrastructure.

Aboloma, hailed the ministers on the Mandatory Conformity Assessment program (MANCAP) for certification of locally manufactured products and the offshore Conformity Assessment program (SONCAP) for imported products as part of measures to promote the competitiveness of made in Nigeria and protect the Nation from imported substandard and life-endangering products.

According to him, the recent revalidation of international accreditation of the SON Food

Technology Laboratories for biological and chemical testing with increased scope of parameters were aimed at supporting the economic diversification agenda of the federal government and timely for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade agreement.

Furthermore, he stated that the sustained fight against the influx and circulation of substandard and life-endangering products through the setting up of a rapid response squad and prosecution of standards infractions with capacity support from the office of the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation would support the development and growth of MSMEs.

He disclosed that SON has streamlined its processes to facilitate Ease of Doing business in compliance with the Presidential Executive Order.