The Acting Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr Paul Angya said the goal of the agency is to reduce the influx of sub-standard and fake products into the country by 80 per cent before the end of this year.
He said this will go a long way in increasing the capacity for local production that will fully help in the diversification of the country’s economy. He said the target is possible if the International Accredited Firms (IAFs) can continue to do their job of stopping the influx of sub-standard products into the country.
Speaking with reporters in Lagos during a meeting with IAFs, he urged them to brace for the challenges, stressing that “they either shape up or ship out.”
Angya said, “If we can stop the influx of sub-standard products into Nigeria, we will increase the local production of goods as we are taking the war to the countries bringing in the bad products to stop them from coming here. This is also why we decided to meet with the IAFs, to let them know that despite the recent change in leadership, the objective is still the same as the SONCAP programme is key to us and we intend to strengthen it.
“SONCAP is pivotal to SON’s mandate to rid the nation of sub-standard products. It is visible and it is an ongoing reform and if SON wants to succeed in ridding the nation of fake products, then the programme must be kept close to our hearts .That is why it is one of the first things I am doing and why we are meeting the IAFs.”
He said to achieve the goal, operational meetings will now be quarterly as the mandate is to provide safe and valuable products to Nigerians. He posited that there are no problems with made-in-Nigeria goods because production is subject to SON’s review arguing that the problem is with goods imported into the country.
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