House committee to support SON’s drive on ‘return policy. IF the move by the House Committee on Industry to support the Standards Organisation of Nigeria’s (SON) efforts on enactment of an enabling law on return policy sails through, consumers may soon heave a sigh of relief in making claims for sub-standard products. Specifically, the move, which borders on making efficient return policies on sub-standard products, is part of SON’s efforts to check the influx of such products in the market, while making manufacturers and importers liable for sub-standard products sold to consumers. The Chairman, House Committee on Industry, Mohammed Onawo explained that the agency has been very proactive in delivering on its mandate maintaining that, for the past two years, the influx of substandard goods into the country has reduced drastically. According to him, the SON Act has been amended in a view to meet world best practices while restating the committee’s commitment to review the act continuously to meet international standards. Onawo during an oversight function and inspection of SON’s uncompleted multi-functional laboratory in Lagos at the weekend stressed that consumers today are now greatly aware of the dangers substandard products pose to the economic development and well-being of Nigerians. To effectively address the scourge, he however called on the private sector to join in the fight against substandard by supporting SON in setting up laboratories to complement the agency’s effort. “We are encouraging all Nigerians that have capabilities to set up laboratories like this, to come on board and get accredited by SON so that the burden is not only on SON. Laboratories of this magnitude cannot be left to SON alone, we need the private sectors support in this regard, “ he added. “We have received numerous complaints from consumers when they go to the market to purchase products saying that, the country has become a dumping ground for all substandard products. We can longer tolerate these products and this is why we must support agencies like this to tackle this menace headlong, “ he stressed. Also speaking at the event, the Director-General, SON. Dr. Joseph Odumodu stated that the proposed laboratory will become a reference point for the country and even beyond West Africa when the laboratory is commissioned, by November. Odumodu noted that Nigeria is already in the realm of a national quality policy to open up all the barriers the country had hitherto and said the federal government does not have the capacity to build all the laboratories required to test all the products in the country. “This serves as an invitation to private sectors to be part of the conformity assessment system and now that we already have an accreditation body, it will be a lot easy for anybody to set up laboratories to get accredited,” he said. “The new laboratory which is a multi-functional laboratory, will have a minimum of 30 laboratories which we would seek accreditation for most of them. It will cover areas of oil and gas, chemicals, electronics, chemical technology and automobile industry,” he added. He said in the last six months, SON has been planning a new national quality policy for the country saying that, Nigeria, unlike many other African countries, is lacking behind in developing a quality policy. He added that without a national quality policy, it will be difficult for Nigeria to rub shoulders with comity of nations in terms of technical barriers to trade, testing, conformity assessment and accreditation. In his words, “ We are currently collaborating with United Nation Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) on a project funded by the United Nation to develop capacity for a new quality infrastructure in Nigeria.” He said this move by SON is to improve the nation’s competencies in laboratory testing, accreditation, conformity assessment and areas of meteorology. The SON boss expressed concerns over the treatment currently being received by the nation’s product in the global market saying that, if Nigeria successfully achieves accreditation within the next one year, it will go a long way to redefine the export of some commodities the nation is currently losing a lot of money on. “Nigeria’s cocoa currently attracts almost 10 percent less in price in the international market because the people who buy this commodity insist they want to test our cocoa before they buy and this is due to the absence of competent accredited laboratories in the country,” he said. He stated as a result of this, the agency predicts that in 2015, there will be public and private laboratories in the country that would be accredited by international accreditation bodies to issue certificates of analysis acceptable worldwide in order to help the nation’s product attract right prices in the international market.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 11:49:52 +0000