NIGERIA – The Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, has charged all manufacturers and assemblers in the country to cooperate with the organisation by getting their products certified.
Director General of SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu gave the directive, while unveiling ‘Walk for Standards’ to mark the World Standards Day 2014 in Abuja, which took place simultaneously in Abeokuta and Calabar.
He said: “In addition to providing opportunities for interactions among stakeholders, is also aimed at propagating the ideals of quality through strict adherence to standards by manufacturers and protection of consumers through zero tolerance to substandard products”.
Odumodu said the theme of this year’s celebration, “Standards level the Playing Field”, was in line with the efforts of SON to promote the competitiveness of made-in-Nigeria products through the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme, (MANCAP), particularly for cottage, small and medium enterprises.
The SON boss, who spoke through the Director of Operations, Mr. Nelson Adebiyi, said, full implementation of the programme has commenced through the organisation’s offices in all states of the federation.
The process, he explained, was designed to assist them implement the requirements of relevant standards from raw material to the finished product with a view to offering quality products that offer value for money to consumers.
He added that “certification to MANCAP will also ensure that locally manufactured products are subjected to similar conformity process like the imported products undergo with SONCAP, thus creating a level playing field”.
The director general said SON as the representative of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO); International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and the International ElectrotechnicalCommission (IEC), has the responsibility to promote standardisation activities in Nigeria in line with its mandate.
He said: SON “has continued to carry out its mandate with vigour through standards elaboration, review, adoption and adaption, factory inspections, market surveys, product and system certification, human capacity development, testing and laboratory analysis, calibration of equipment and measuring instructs as well as compliance monitoring and standards enforcement”.
Odumodu noted with delight that standards in Nigeria had improved through the high level of enforcement by the organisation and the cooperation of all stakeholders.
According to him, the 2014 celebrations in Nigeria would be concluded with a national seminar for small and medium enterprises in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN; National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, NASME and the National Association of Small Scale Industrialists, NASSI on October 30 in Lagos.
In his remarks on the occasion, Assistant Director, Quality Assurance in the Consumer Protection Council, CPC, Mr. KelechiOkonpledged the readiness of the Council to continue to cooperate with other stakeholders in promoting standards in the country.
October 28, 2014; http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/all-products-must-be-certified-son-insists/192433/
