SON urges SMEs to embrace standardisation
Director-General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Mr. Osita Abolma has called the operators of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) as well as agricultural firms located in Delta State and environs, to leverage on the new office established by the agency in the state.
He said this was the only way in which the efforts made in establishing the Delta office would be fully harnessed.
Aboloma who was speaking during the handing over of the office recently by the state government, added that the idea was to bring standardisation benefits closer to firms within the Delta-Edo axis so that more firms would be integrated into standardisation regimes of the SON.
Commending the state government for helping to make the office a reality, he said the administration had demonstrated good faith in accommodating the SON within its territory, urging other states to follow the good example of Delta.
The SON DG also promised that technical and support staff would be deployed to the office shortly to make it functional.
According to him, the office would work to fast-track registration and other formalities within the zone, in line with the Federal Government’s Ease of Doing Business mantra.
“To that extent, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, would be assisted in having their products and processes registered, as way of helping them improve their processes, become more marketable, and their products more competitive in the international market.” He added.
The SON DG said another area of prime focus, was the agricultural sector where he said Nigeria had great potentials yet to be fully harnessed.
“Our unflagging efforts have seen to the establishment of Nigeria’s first food laboratories accredited by the International Laboratory Accreditation Corporation (ILAC) of the United States.
The SON food laboratories have capacity to test 200 products and thereby cover all known food items on the table,” Aboloma stressed.
He said with the laboratory, Nigerian exporters would now be more confident to approach the international market with their products having obtained the certification from the SON laboratories after due tests.
