Babajide Sanwo-Olu, executive governor of Lagos State, alongside chairman, board of Trustees, Society of Testing Laboratory Analysts of Nigeria (SoTLAN) Oladapo Afolabi, will host the 6th annual Conference of Public Analysts (COPA), 2024.
The event, themed “Optimising Laboratory Analytics and Quality Assurance in the Present Economy,” is scheduled to take place from May 11 to 13, 2024, in Lagos.
COPA 2024 will gather professionals, students, and healthcare exhibitors to explore best practices in the laboratory and testing sector in Nigeria.
The conference aims to address the critical need for maintaining high standards in commodity testing, which is essential for ensuring food security, reducing the prevalence of low-quality products, and boosting life expectancy.
Speaking about the conference in Lagos, Olugbenga Ogunmoyela, president, SoTLAN, stated that the event was birthed in response to the need to maintain best standards in testing of commodities is the market place.
According to him, it is crucial to achieving food security in the country, stemming the tide of low quality products and boosting life expectancy for the general populace.
He noted that as a meeting point for professionals, will be an opportunity to educate the public on the need for statutory laboratory testing of products, serve as a platform for inter-tertiary institution discussions and debates on industry issues with prize awards, and culminate in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association.
“We emphasize the fact that every product that goes into the market must go through the process of laboratory testing and validation.
“We hear of people putting petrochemical products in the production of plaintain chips to ensure that the plaintain chips are crunchy. They don’t know that they are poisoning the consumer,” he said.
“The theme for this year’s conference is: Optimizing Laboratory Analytics and Quality Assurance in the Present Economy. The Chief Host of the 3-day event is the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is expected to be assisted by the Chairman of our Board of Trustees, Oladapo Afolabi as Host.”
Ogunmoyela added that if the public are better educated, standard will be brought to the marketplace and consumers will gain greater health dividends when they purchase quality goods.
He further explained that the customer is at the mercy of the information available to him from the public and strengthening conversations on food testing and consumption is important to breeding healthier societies.
“Consumer education is crucial. Until we have people willing to support and ensure and promote information across different languages groups in the country, people will take anything they can find. When people do not have information, they are not aware, they are not sensitised and they are not educated.
“It is when our consumers are aware of what the challenges are that they will begin to asked questions. This is not just a SoTLAN issue, this concerns all of us.”
