SON’s Policies Cripple Proliferation of Substandard Products, Says Odumodu
Dr. Joseph Odumodu
Yemi Akinsuyi in Abuja
The Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON),
Dr. Joseph Odumodu, said at the weekend that the three policies put in
place by the organisation have crippled the proliferation of substandard
products in the country.
Odumodu spoke during the visit of participants in the Policy Strategy
and Leadership Course (PSLC) of the National Institute of Policy and
Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State, to the organisation in
Abuja.
He listed the agencies schemes as Mandatory Conformity Assessment
Programme (MANCAP), Standard Organisation of Nigeria Conformity
Assessment Programme (SONCAP) and the e-Product Registration among
others.
The SON boss told the participants that the programmes were geared towards assuring the quality of products, stressing that “all the schemes ensure that products conform to their relevant standards before release to the consumers and also ensure traceability of the products.”
The SON boss told the participants that the programmes were geared towards assuring the quality of products, stressing that “all the schemes ensure that products conform to their relevant standards before release to the consumers and also ensure traceability of the products.”
“The SON believes these schemes are the best mechanism for combating
substandard products and they have significantly reduced the menace of
substandard products in our economy since their introduction,” he
disclosed.
Odumodu, who was represented by the Director of Operations, Engr. John
Achukwu, declared that these schemes and other activities of the
organisation might not be sufficient to guarantee 100 per cent quality
products in the country.
According to him, the best assurance is for consumers to always buy
locally produced goods, saying the organisation could not give assurance
on the safety and quality of foreign products which did not fall under
the domestic regulatory system.
The Director General said “this is particularly so for those products imported, unapproved, adulterated and misbranded, as well as counterfeit products from foreign and domestic sources.”
The Director General said “this is particularly so for those products imported, unapproved, adulterated and misbranded, as well as counterfeit products from foreign and domestic sources.”
He maintained that “the generic solution to the issue of substandard
products is the increase in the productive capacity and the less
dependence of our economy on imported products.”
Odumodu said several factors were responsible for this, pointing out
that “the fact remains that the longer the channel of distribution is,
the more likely are issues and therefore, abuse bound to ‘crop-up’ for
the product concerned.”
Earlier, leader of the team, Dr. Choji Ibrahim, explained that
participants of the Course 16, apart from their involvement in the
senior executives course at the NIPSS, also embarked on human capacity
course to broaden their knowledge.
He expressed the readiness of the three-week course participants that
include senior executives, military and paramilitary officers to
collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment
as well as its agencies in achieving their goals.
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