‘Manufactured products without SON certification should not be purchased’

Nigerians have been advised to stop purchasing manufactured products without the certification of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

Plateau State Coordinator, Mr. Musa George, gave the advice in Jos during the presentation of SON’s Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) certification to seven companies whose products passed the monitoring process and conformed to Nigerian industrial standards, stated that such products might be in the market illegally and could be detrimental to the public, since they had not met the requirements for quality and safety.

He noted that every product that had met the requirements of the required standards was safe and certified with either a MANCAP or a NIS (Nigerian Mark of Quality) sign, adding that certified manufactured products imported into the country would carry the SONCAP logo on them.

He decried the alarming rate at which Nigeria was being used as dumpsite for substandard goods from other countries, a development, he insisted, was detrimental to the public.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), George disclosed that the aim of the organisation is to ensure that all manufactured products complied with NIS requirements before their introduction to the market to prevent dumping of unsafe and substandard products in the markets.

He said this would also promote consumer confidence and global competitiveness of Nigerian goods and services.He called on the awardees to ensure that they adhered to SON standard, as their products could still be subjected to regular surveillance and the MANCAP certificates could be withdrawn if the products failed to conform to the minimum standard or if the company abused the rules on usage of the MANCAP logo.