Stories by Charles Nwaoguji
Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), has advised the general public against purchasing manufactured products without SON certification.
The Head of Product Registration of SON, Enebi Shaibu Onucheyo, said that such products might be in the market illegally and could be detrimental to consumers since they had not met the requirements for quality and safety.
Onucheyo, who gave the advice during a chat with Daily Sun, recently in his office in Lagos, said every product that had met the requirements of the Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) was safe and certified with either a MANCAP or a NIS (Nigerian mark of quality) sign.
He added 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 a dump site for substandard goods from other countries, stressing that the development was detrimental to the public.
According to him, the aim of the organisation is to ensure that all manufactured products complied with NIS requirements before their introduction to the market.
The SON coordinator said the action was to prevent dumping of unsafe and substandard products in the markets, stating that this would also promote consumer confidence and global competitiveness of Nigerian goods and services.
Onucheyo called on manufacturers and importers to ensure they adhere to SON standard as their products could still be subjected to regular surveillance.
He warned that the MANCAP certificates could be withdrawn if the products fail to conform with the minimum standard or if the company abuses the rules on usage of the MANCAP logo.
On the recent closed Samsung office, he said the office was closed because it (Samsung) did not register its products with the SON.
He stated that within 24 hours after its products were registered, its office was reopened for business, noting that SON was not created to close down businesses but to ensure that every product manufactured here in Nigeria or imported into the country are properly registered and conform to standards.