SON pushes harder to rid Nigerian of substandard lubricants, cables

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has embarked on a nationwide mop-up of substandard lubricants, cables, textiles and other products, describing the move as part of its mission to safeguard the country and increase the capacity utilisation of local factories.

The SON raided markets in Oshodi, Idumota, Alaba international market and Abule Osun with a view to eliminating harmful, uncertified and substandard products from Nigeria.

“This raid is targeted at anywhere suspected substandard product is seen and that is why we embarked on the raiding of warehouses and markets of where substandard lubricants are sold to consumers in this country. We are looking at cables and textile materials. We want to make this country a place where indigenous manufacturers can come and produce. We want Nigerian factories to have more capacity utilisation,” said Osita Aboloma, director-general of SON, who was represented by Bede Obayi, director of monitoring and compliance, SON.

At an enforcement exercise to raid different markets and warehouses in Lagos in search of adulterated and uncertified lubricants, Aboloma said the agency had been reinvigorated thanks to its new SON Act 2015 to remove all non-complying products from the nation’s market.

“We do not want these unscrupulous importers to flood this country with substandard products. We want the capacity utilisation of Nigerian companies to improve so as to employ the teeming unemployed Nigerian youths and it can only be so when these substandard products are removed from the nation’s market. This is why we have stopped at nothing in getting everything that is suspected to be substandard out of the markets.”

‘’This is just the starting point and we have not gotten to where we want to be. This is a fight that we are not going to stop until we finish removing most of the substandard products in circulation. It is the mandate of the organisation to ensure that Nigerians enjoy safe and non-hazardous products whenever they buy products. Today, you have seen that made-in-Nigeria products, especially cables, have become the order of the day where these importers go abroad to buy imported products and clone them as if they are made in this country and this is what we cannot allow to continue to happen in this country,” he said.

He said the nefarious act discouraged genuine businessmen to invest in the country, stressing that it also posed danger to Nigeria’s economy while also increasing the unemployment level.

“Once we remove these substandard products, the Nigerian products would take over and that is when we will be talking of made-in-Nigeria products for the world. We want Nigerians to enjoy made-in-Nigeria products so that once they see made-in-Nigeria products, they will be proud of it and we do not want other countries to dump substandard products on us and that is the essence of this raid,” he stated.

He said SON had done so much in the cable industry to ensure that made-in-Nigeria cables were the best all over the world, adding that dealers who specialised in cloning established brands would be prosecuted.

ODINAKA ANUDU