SON to eradicate substandard products in Nigeria in 3 months

Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) says it will within the next three months clean up the Nigerian market of fake/substandard products.

However, it has re-opened the e-Provisional Clearance Certificate (e-PCC) window for three months, starting from April 25 to July 24, to enable consignment whose Form ‘M’ has been approved prior to September 10, 2015, to be cleared.

The SON has expressed displeasure in the manner in which Nigerians describe the agency as being ineffective in discharging its duty, blaming the regulatory body for being responsible for the influx of substandard products. It was against this backdrop and in a bid to curb the menace of substandard products in the country that the agency warned those importing substandard products to desist from the unlawful act or be ready to face the consequences.

“This thing has gotten to an unacceptable level. It has gotten to the level where the minister of industry, trade and investment has directed me to go and clean up the system. And you know what clean up means. If you stand on the way, you would be cleaned along that is what it means,” said Paul Angya, acting director-general, SON, at the maritime stakeholders’ forum in Lagos on Tuesday.

“Go and clean up the system means go and clean anything that is preventing it; that is the directive. And I am telling you that I am going to clean up that system in three months,” he said.

Angya stated that the agency’s decision to re-open the e-PCC window was in response to the plea of many stakeholders in industry, and he emphasised that the window would be opened for three months and after July 24 it would be closed, “as SON believes that importers are using the provisional window to manipulate regulatory agencies such as SON, Customs, and other security agencies.”

The e-PCC window implies that any consignment using the window has neither valid SON certificates nor valid e-Import permits.

Importers, clearing agents and other stakeholders are expected to use the 90 days window approved by SON for the clearance of some consignments, which are said to be at the ports or have already been shipped prior to the September 10, 2015 integration of SON into NICIS, as the window will close by midnight of July 24, 2016.