EDITORIAL: SON and substandard goods
Recently, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), impounded 500 expired tyres and suspended the sale of 1,000 suspected substandard steel bars in Calabar, Cross River State. According to the state coordinator of SON, Mr Udeme Udom, the items were confiscated during a market surveillance carried out by the organisation in some building material shops between May and June. Furthermore, Udom disclosed that apart from tyres and iron rods, the agency seized substandard automobile parts, consumable products and electrical appliances.
Even though we are alarmed and worried at this development, it comes as no surprise. There is no doubt that Nigeria ranks first among the countries where substandard items such as drugs food and beverages, articles, electrical materials, electronics, household appliances and equipment, building materials, automobiles, spare parts and tyres are dumped indiscriminately.
Unfortunately, this absurdity appears to be under estimated by both the public and government. Part of the reason is that we have become accustomed to abnormalities and oddities. In Nigeria, lives and properties are lost due to building collapse or fire outbreak occasioned by substandard materials and electrical parts, even as our roads and highways have become graveyards of crashed vehicles running on substandard tyres that are prone to bursting at high temperatures. How many accidents could have been avoided it it were not for motorists buying and fitting these tyres on their vehicles?
Unfortunately, Nigerians are not getting value for their money because they probably spend five times more replacing and maintaining these products because of their inferior quality, a clear case of huge economic waste and losses. It is a fact that Nigeria is facing a monumental battle against importation of substandard goods. This is because of the often-huge profits dealers in such goods can make. This contrasts with the losses sellers of genuine products have to endure, because substandard goods tend to be cheap. It is estimated that more than 55 per cent of imported products valued at N15billion are believed to be lost annually to fake or counterfeit goods.
It is worthy to note that not only do substandard goods pose grave dangers to public health; the risks to gullible consumers are also huge and put a big burden on the regulatory authorities to counter the trend.
For the government, it means lost revenues, customs duties and taxes, while presenting serious health hazards, privacy and security concerns, low performance and degraded quality of service to consumers.
We are aware that substandard products are the result of negligence, insufficient human and financial resources or counterfeiting. Factors contributing to this situation include weak regulatory systems and lack of legislation against substandard and counterfeit products, and, where they do exist, there is ineffective enforcement. Others include poverty, which has weakened the purchasing power of about 65 per cent of the Nigerian population; epileptic electricity supply, which has forced many industries to relocate to other countries.
In addition, it is known that some Nigerians have been accused of conniving with some foreign manufacturers to lower the quality of goods to be imported into the country. The SON in cooperation with the Customs, among others, must step up efforts to stem the importation of substandard goods. On the other hand, Nigeria must provide a favourable economic environment and other incentives that would promote and encourage local manufacturing of products to discourage the importation of fake or substandard goods.
