The Director General of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Malam Farouk Salim, has called on manufacturers and importers in Nnewi Industrial town of Anambra State, to take their businesses higher by ensuring that their products meet the relevant industrial standards.
Malam Salim made the call at a one-day Sensitisation/ Awareness Creation Workshop for Stakeholders in Nnewi, Anambra State.
Salim, who was represented by Mr. Mathias Bassey, the Director, Anambra Regional Operations, said only standardisation could position for national acceptability and global competitiveness.
He stated the quality assurance process of inspection, sampling and testing which ensured products conformed with minimum industrial standards.
“Standardization gives the consumer confidence of the quality of products being purchased and value for money spent, which is an attestation that the products can favorably compete globally.
“It is in the light of the foregoing that the SON has put in place policies and initiatives that are targeted at expanding the frontiers of the local manufacturer via standardization and quality assurance activities,” he said.
According to Salim, some of the policies include the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme, Market Surveillance, Inspection/Compliance Activities, Standard Development, SON-Conformity Assessment Programme and Product Registration.
In his lecture, Mr. Onucheyo Enebi, the Director National Metrology Institute Enugu, said standardisation enhances customers’ confidence, producers’ profitability and national economic prosperity.
Enebi said non-compliance to industry standards could result in product recall which has huge cost and often leads to the shutdown of firms.
In a reaction, a participant, Mr Kenneth Anyadioha called for simplification of the registration process as the rigor involved in obtaining the certifications was one of factors scaring people away.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Chief Emeka Duru, Senior Special Assistant to the Director General said the workshop was the third in Anambra in the last one year.
Duru, who represented the DG said Nnewi was crucial to Nigeria’s industrialisation drive and there was need give investors all the support they needed for global competitiveness.
“If you remember, there was a time when products from Japan, China and Taiwan were regarded as substandard, but now they produce for the rest of the world because they embraced standardisation.
“We must do what they did in order to be like them, we must do the right thing at all times,” he said.
The workshop was themed: “Expanding the Frontiers of Local Manufacturer through Standardisation.”
