Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has said that there are currently more quality products in the nation’s markets than the substandard ones, noting further its commitment to providing standards and quality assurance services for all products, services and processes in Nigeria in line with international best practices.
Farouk A. Salim, Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) noted this during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos. He used the opportunity to review the achievements, itemize the challenges of the Organisation in the past year.
“We have achieved a lot over the past year. There is still work to be done. We have increased our surveillance in the market and reduced the risk of people accessing substandard products from our markets”, Salim said.
The mandate of the Organisation includes preparation of Standards relating products, measurements, materials, processes and services amongst others and their promotion at National, Regional and International levels; certification of products, assistance in the production of quality goods and services; improvement of measurement accuracies and circulation of information relating to standards.
“We have organized and re-organized our organogram by expanding a little bid of the top cadre where we have people with more experience. SON has 42 offices in the country by most of them don’t have the facilities and logistics to work effectively. There are only about 1,700 staff working for SON across its 42 offices”, Salim noted.
The vision of SON is to improve life through standardisation and quality assurance while its mission is to promote consumer confidence and global competitiveness of Nigerian products and services through standardisation and quality assurance.
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In line with the vision and mission of SON, its Director-General said the Standards Organisation of Nigeria has signed some Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with some governors to help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) excel in their businesses and become globally competitive.
Salim noted that it is the responsibility of SON to help about 40 million SMEs produce standardized goods/products that are competitive outside the shores of the country, adding that it is also the responsibility of the Organisation to fight individuals that are bringing in substandard products into the country.
“The potentials in this country are limitless. Our ability to take care of standards and enforce standards in Nigeria goes beyond what everyone imagines”, the DG said, while also adding that SON currently prosecutes nine (9) cases for substandard good.
To enable SON prosecute those involved in substandard goods in Nigeria, the DG said they are going to National Assembly to ask for increase in some of the penalties in the SON establishment act.
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) was established by an Enabling Act Number 56 of December 1971 – the Standards Organisation of Nigeria cap 412 of the laws of Federal Republic of Nigeria, with a commencement date of 1 January 1970, when the Organisation started to function. The Act has three amendments: Act Number 20 of 1976, Act Number 32 of 1984 and Act Number 18 of 1990.
