SON would soon return to port – FG
The Federal Government is looking at taking back the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to the nation’s ports, the acting DG has made his request and we are now looking at it, and the government is looking at the best way forward.
The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajiya Aisha Abubakar who disclosed this during a facility tour to the SON laboratories in Lagos recently, stated that she was impressed with the level of work done so far on the multi-million Naira SON laboratories, which is near completion.
She said; “For me, I am very impressed with the level of job done so far on the laboratory, and with this, I can see job creation for our teaming youths and so many more opportunities for the exportation of our products. The National Assembly had a discussion on this issue, a couple of weeks ago, but I hope in the next six months, the story would be different with the issue of standardisation as I know that by that time, this laboratory should have been in operation.
“Basically, we have to set our own standards about what we wear, what we eat and so on, which would benchmark the international standards, so that wherever Nigerian products are found, we would not have issues with it. It is all about introducing quality to guide our young people, to guide our professionals services and everybody would be guided in terms of trade facilities that is expected and how much that would be expected with regards to trade facilitation in Nigeria, building and encouraging industries; and we have been working seriously on the local patronage and trying to see whether we can get the permit of including certain percentage of made in Nigeria product, and where is not possible, then we make more flexible arrangement.
“I will appeal to Nigerians to be a little more patient with us, because what we have just passed through is the revamping period, and now we are embarking on the implementation process. Before you see the benefits of all that we have done, it would take some time, but I think the time is near. The difference would be very clear, we are trying to do things that would be very sustainable, though they are not tangible now, but they are beneficial to our economy.
In his speech, Dr. Paul Angya, the Acting Director General, SON, stated that the access of Nigerian products to the international market and its limitations are because the country does not have standards laboratory.
He pointed out that these laboratories are the keys that open the doors, the gateway to the international markets, stressing that with the laboratory facilities; these products that are made in Nigeria would be tested and certificates that certify the international markets would be issued as the certificate is the evidence of assurance to the international markets about the goods.
Angya said; “Certainly, the absence of this lab has limited our capacity to export and get our goods acceptable in the international market. So, when the labs are fully operational, it would certainly improve our capacity for export. The equipment have started arriving, and in a period of three to six months, the lab would be fully operational.
“The issue of control of is a two-way traffic, we have control on certain items and we do not have control on certain items. Most items that come in from overseas, get into the country through an institution, so we need to take control of that factory that produces such products, but when we don’t have control over them, that is when you see such cases of substandard product around.
“We are intensifying efforts to check what is in the market. Critically, these things are imported through the sea ports, and when they come in, we start chasing them around and we need people and resources to chase them. These are the challenges, but we have initiatives like trying to identify quality products and to let people know that such product is of a standard quality, so, we are registering importers with product like tyres, electrical cables and so on.
“So, we have devised a scheme of giving dealers on tyres special codes and when you go through the tyre mantra, you can see and identify standard ones. We are also introducing product security so that when you want to buy tyre, you can look for the one that has the security seal or the number according to the Nigerian standards.
“The issue of quality requires physical inspection, so that is why, the installation of automated system at the port without SON being physically present there would not yield the expected result. There are some importers that beat the check, because the system presupposes that every product that is coming into the country passes the standards check, but in a situation whereby more that 90 percent of those products have not been checked overseas, the automated system does not check quality, so you now require the experts to physically examine and test these products.
Coming back to the port is a policy issue and it is not within my control, the one within my control is the EBCC platform, which allows importers to bring in products without verification. This practice has been on since August 2015, by the WTO rules, they have a three months window within which to conform to Customs single window for importing products, and they were given three months since August 2015, which is supposed to have elapsed in October 2015.
“Because that window remained open, the due process for verifying quality in the port has been abandoned by importers and all diverted products is with the EBCC platform, were goods are allowed to come into Nigeria without verification. I have promised when I spoke with them in March and I gave them three months, which has elapsed this July. From today, notices would be sent out that the plat form would be shut, advising importers to conform to the quality regime that is in place by the government.
“Every importer of product that does not have them verified overseas before bringing them down here would not have the legal opportunity to come into Nigeria. I cannot control the illegal ones, but I can control the legal ones, and by 30th of July, that platform would be shut down permanently. So, everybody would have to conform to quality verification.”
