From Walter Ukaegbu, Abuja
Director-General Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr. Osita Aboloma, has encouraged the Independent Accredited Firms (IAFs) managers of the SON offshore Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) to live up to the expectations of Nigerians in the inspection of goods coming into the country.
Aboloma made this remark in Abuja yesterday at a meeting with the programme managers. He also said that the mandate given to the managers was to ensure that only tested and certified products are allowed into the country, adding that “anything less will not be accepted by SON and Nigerians.”
The IAFs, made up of INTERTEK, SGS, COTECNA and CCIC, were told that the diversification of the Nigerian economy has brought a lot to bear on SON in the development of the non-oil sector, particularly agriculture and industry.
He urged them to do all within their mandate to ensure that Nigerian businesses are protected from the menace of sub-standard products from overseas.
The Director-General implored them to take the issue of quality seriously as “quality increases income and affects the lives of the people, including health”.
Aboloma tasked the IAFs to put the interest of Nigerians above every other interest,and reiterated the “change begins with me” agenda of the Federal Government, which, according to him, is to be self-reliant, and do business with ease in Nigeria.
Aboloma noted that “change and improvement are synonymous, and for any system to change it must not be rigid, there must be room for constructive criticism for the system to move forward.”
FG to acquire more communication satellites
From Walter Ukaegbu, Abuja
Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, has disclosed that efforts were being made to procure two additional communication satellites to complement the existing NigComSat as a means of reaching areas that cannot easily be covered by terrestrial fiber.
In the area of spectrum management the minister stated that the ministry has issued and renewed a total of 668 licenses from November 2015 to September 2016 and generating about N500 million as government revenue.
According to him, government intends to secure state-of-the-art mobile equipment that would be deployed to enforce compliance and also enable the detection, location and blocking of illegal users of spectrum.
Shittu explained that effective radio spectrum monitoring would assist with intelligence gathering and support security agencies in enhancing security and safety of citizens and the nation in general.
“We have sustained focus on modernising NIPOST for greater contribution to ICT development, this includes the transformation of NIPOST such that it would soon have NIPOST banking and insurance e-services, NIPOST property and development company, NIPOST transport and logistics services and NIPOST e-commerce services among others,” he said.
