The Federal Government has directed all its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to henceforth patronise the internationally accredited services of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) for the certification of their management systems and processes in accordance with international best practices.
A circular from Boss Mustapha, secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), to all MDAs, said the SON Management Systems Certification (MSC) services, has attained international accreditation.
The scope of the accreditation includes four International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standards – Quality Management Systems (QMS) Standards; Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Standards; Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) Standards and Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) Standards.
Mustapha directed all the MDAs to take optimum advantage of the SON Management Systems Certification services in line with the Presidential Executive Order 4 on support of local content.
He said patronage of SON’s MSC would lead to huge savings in foreign exchange previously expended by some MDAs in procuring such services from foreign organisations.
Commenting, Osita Aboloma, director general of SON, disclosed that the accreditation has brought his agency at par with its contemporaries in Europe, America, Asia and some parts of Africa.
He said SON international accreditation of its MSC services came on the heels of a similar attainment for its training services which focuses on development of national capacity in international management systems standards.
He recalled that the SON Training Services (STS) Centre received certification by the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) and the International Register of Certified Auditors (IRCA) as an Approved Training Partner (ATP) in 2018.
He added the Centre became the first CQI and IRCA approved training centre in Nigeria and the West African Region to offer certified courses by the two international institutions.
Aboloma disclosed that the MSC accreditation and STS international recognition form part of the overall repositioning of the agency’s services for global competitiveness as well as promoting ease of doing business in the public and private sectors in Nigeria.
He further stated that concerted efforts are ongoing to attain international accreditation for the organisation’s other service offerings for global acceptance and promotion of international trade with, and investment in Nigeria.
Aboloma said that over 300 private sector organisations and institutions in Nigeria are already certified by the SON MSC in addition to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), with visible benefits in higher productivity, efficiency and responsiveness.
He listed the SON-MSC quality objectives as including “to achieve efficient and prompt service delivery to clients, ensure prompt resolution of all complaints as well as regular updating of its auditors’ knowledge and skills.”
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
