Fidelia Okafor

The standard and quality of products in circulation either locally made or imported determines the Nigeria’s economic and industrial growth.

It is also critical to ensure that imported products meet high quality benchmarks which would in turn stop the dumping of sub-standard imports in Nigeria.

These were the submissions of the Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr. Osita Aboloma when the agency enters a renewed partnership agreement with SGF, an Independent Accredited Firm (IAF) in Lagos recently. The pact will build technical capacities in a bid to ensure that only goods that meet minimum requirements of the Nigeria Industrial Standards (NIS) are traded in Nigerian markets.

According to Mr. Aboloma, IAFs are very critical to achieve the agency’s agenda to reduce influx of substandard goods in the country.

The firm, SGF donated textile testing machines to SON, even as Aboloma commended the IAF’s support to the agency in its fight to achieve its mandate of combating influx of fake and substandard products in Nigeria.

He tasked IAFs to continue their fair dealings and honesty with the agency especially towards issuance of SONCAP  for importers, saying that the present administration plans to discourage unwholesome imports while targeting economic diversification and export drive.

“Let me sincerely thank the Management of SGF-one of our reliable and dependable Independent Accredited Firms (IAFs), helping us immensely, in the very critical areas of products certifications, quality conformity and quality control. To underscore the importance of this brief ceremony to the agency, I decided to be physically present today to warmly receive the equipment,” the SON Director General declared.

He said there is no other crucial time than now that SON needs the technical assistance and support from the IAFs, maintaining that the agency has since upped the ante on quality infrastructure development.

“Your kind gesture to the agency, demonstrates the level of your firm’s commitment towards helping the nation to grow industrially. We want to assure you that these machines would be properly deployed and adequately put into use by our laboratory services department,” he said.

According to him, the SGF has set the ball rolling, pointing out that standards body hopefully, will be looking forward to receiving more of such technical assistance from other IAFs and development partners, stressing that IAFs remain critical in its mandate of products registration, accreditation and certifications.

“Our own part, we are intensifying efforts towards building capacities and quality infrastructure. We will in no distant time complete and accredit more laboratories. Through the development of standard laboratories, locally made products would enjoy high patronage at home and global acceptance. This is part of our strategies towards economic diversification (oil-to non-oil sector) and industrial growth,” the SON helmsman disclosed.