The State Coordinator, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) in Jos; Plateau State, Mr Musa George, has advised the general public to stop purchasing manufactured products without SON certification.

He said such products might be in the market illegally and could be detrimental to them since they had not met the requirements for quality and safety.

The state coordinator gave the advice during the presentation of SON Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) certification to seven companies whose products passed the monitoring process and conformed to Nigerian Industrial Standards.

He said that every product that had met the requirements of the Nigerian Industrial Standards was safe and certified with either a MANCAP or a NIS (Nigerian Mark of Quality) sign.

He also said that certified manufactured products imported into the country would carry the SONCAP logo on them.

George decried the alarming rate at which Nigeria was being used as a dump site for substandard goods from other countries and stressed that the development was detrimental to the public.

According to him, the aim of the organisation is to ensure that all manufactured products complied with NIS requirements before their introduction to the market.

The SON coordinator said that the action was to prevent dumping of unsafe and substandard products in the markets.

He said that this would also promote consumer confidence and global competitiveness of Nigerian goods and services.
George called on the awardees to ensure that they adhered to SON standard as their products could still be subjected to regular surveillance.

He warned them that the MANCAP certificates could be withdrawn if the products failed to conform to the minimum standard or if the company abused the rules on usage of the MANCAP logo.