SON seeks stiffer sanctions against importers of sub-standard goods

With the empowerment of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) under the SON Act of 2015, the Director-General of the agency, Dr. Joseph Odumodu has stated that the regulator will not hesitate to impose stiffer punishments on importers of sub-standard goods into the country.

According to him, the agency is reviewing measures to combat the present challenges of destroying confiscated sub-standard goods by punishing the perpetrators of such acts.

Odumodu noted that the new SON Act of 2015, empowers the agency to prosecute offenders for sabotaging the economy of the country.

Speaking at the donation of gifts to SON by Intertek limited in commemoration of the 10th year anniversary of SON Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP), Odumodu added that the SON Act also gives the agency the power to force importers and manufacturers to create a database of every products in the market, which would be helped by the Electronic Products Registration (EPR) that is being embarked upon by the agency.

According to him, it is not enough to say we have destroyed goods worth billions of Naira; we also want to know who brought them into the country hence we are keeping a database.

“We are also building a new laboratory that would have sample reference offices and all it does is to keep pictures of bad products sampled and when President Muhammadu Buhari goes to China and other countries within the area in the first quarter of next year, we would show the government there, present them that these are companies that we want to blacklist and that such firms should not bring their products into the country. There will be sanctions for Nigerians who bring such products into the country”, he said.

He said by 2016, inferior goods would have fallen under 15 per cent as the standards body is doing a lot to address the situation through an active collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

On the equipment donated to SON, he said the Flammability Chamber tester, Haver Airflow Tester and the High Performance liquid Chromatography (HPLC) donated by Intertek, are worth millions of naira, will go a long way in the agency’s fight against sub-standard products entering the country.

He explained: “Historically, we have three major labs, one in Kaduna for textile and leather, one in Lagos and the last in Enugu.

The donation of the equipment for textile, Flammability Chamber tester and Haver Airflow Tester, are as a result of the refurbishment of our laboratory and since the new government started, they are doing what is called Demand Driven Standardisation (DDS).