SON renews campaign against substandard goods

In commemoration of this year’s World
Standards Day, the Standards Organisation of
Nigeria (SON) has urged members of the public to
desist from patronising sub-standard goods in an
effort to check the influx of such commodities to
the country.
According to the SON, continued patronage of
such goods would only sustain the businesses of
those involved in the illicit trade.
To strengthen its campaign, the SON has equally
embarked on increased consumer awareness
initiative to empower consumers on the negative
impact substandard goods have on lives of people
and properties.
The Director General, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu,
explained that the theme of this year’s world
standards day celebrations tagged “Standards-the
world’s common language” as released by the
three big global standards authorities including
the International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC), International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) and International Organisation for
Standardisation (ISO) will provide opportunities
for the agency to engage interactions with the
public while also calling the attention of Nigerian
consumers on the need to always demand for
quality products and services.
Indeed, this year’s standards day seeks to
promote inter-connectedness of products and
services in order to boost trade.
Odumodu who was represented by the Regional
Director, South West, SON Mrs. Mojisola Kehinde,
during the programme tagged “walk for
standards”, pointed out that other activities lined
up to celebrate the World Standards day include,
a special facilitation visit to factories, a
stakeholders forum in Aba as well as
simultaneous walk against substandard products
in Abuja, Kaduna and Awka to press home the
agency’s determination to rid the nation of
substandard products.
Meanwhile, the SON boss said all hands are on
deck to ensure that the influx of substandard
goods currently trending at 30 per cent is
reduced to about 10 per cent before the end of
2015.
“Suffice to state that a world without standards
will make routine activities that we take for
granted like making a call, surfing the web or
using our ATM cards to withdraw money much
more complicated and nearly impossible thus
underscoring the theme of this year’s celebration,
“he said.
According to him, it is only through compliance
to international standards that Nigeria can
become an exporter of more processed agro-
allied and manufactured products, saying that the
pursuit of this reward of quality explains SON’s
increasing investment in the National Quality
Infrastructure components such as standards
development, testing laboratories, metrology
institute, certification, accreditation service,
conformity assessment and enforcement schemes.