The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has stated it is winning the war against fake and substandard goods, as the level of seizures has increased.
According to Farouk Salim, director-general, SON, responses from market associations and stakeholders from different sectors indicate that the quality of goods has increased significantly, particularly steel and cables.
Salim stated this on the sidelines of its capacity building workshop for journalists, themed “Improved synergy to promote standardisation” in Lagos.
He however urged consumers to always reach out to SON should they have issues of purchasing goods online, stressing that monitoring goods online could be very difficult.
“We have offices all over the country and you can bring these goods and the receipts for us to clarify these issues, so that we can go back to these online dealers to seek redress,” he said.
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He noted that the essence of the workshop was to appreciate the media and their contribution to the progress of the agency and the country in general, saying, “We are also using this medium to interact and discuss issues that bothers both the media and the standards body.”
On the level of seizures made so far, he said its level of seizures had increased tremendously, maintaining that responses from stakeholders and market associations indicate that SON was winning the war against substandard goods.
“The stakeholders’ response is very good and recently we have studies where steel products quality has also increased very much as we get this information from contractors and dealers. We are getting very good responses from stakeholders and the markets about the quality of steel products and cables,” he said.
He also reaffirmed SON’s commitment to strengthen its partnership with the media urging journalists to also act as vanguards in its fight against fake and substandard goods.
The SON has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Katsina State government to develop the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the state, he said, stressing that discussions are also ongoing to take the gospel of standardisation to Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi and Sokoto to make SMEs competitive.
Also speaking, Chinyere Egwuonwu, director, Standards Development, said the Nigeria National Standardisation Strategy (NNSS) introduced last year with a three-year implementation plan had so far identified 658 standardisation projects to be developed before the end of 2023.
The NNSS aims to support the federal government’s Economic Recovery Growth Plan and Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), she said.
