Don't Miss

SON harps on increased consumer awareness to combat influx of substandard goods

By BusinessNews Staff on October 21, 2015

The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has stated the need to increase the level of ‎consumer awareness on the dangers of patronising substandard goods as a way of addressing the menace.

Director General, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu explained that to achieve this, there is urgent need to engage interactions with the public while also calling the attention of Nigerian consumers on the need to always demand for quality products and services.

Odumodu ‎during the agency’s “walk for standards” tagged “Standards-the world’s common language”

awareness campaign to commemorate the 2015 edition of World Standards Day, stressed that apart from the “walk for standards” awareness campaign to increase consumer awareness on the hazardous impact of substandard goods on lives and properties, there are other activities lined up to celebrate the World Standards day which include, a special facilitation visit to factories, a stakeholders forum in Aba as well as simultaneous walk against substandard products in Abuja, Kaduna and Awka to press home the agency’s determination to rid the nation of substandard products.

‎

The SON boss represented by the Regional Director, South West, SON Mrs. Mojisola Kehinde, said all hands are on deck to ensure that the influx of substandard goods currently trending at 30 per cent is reduced to about 10 per cent before the end of 2015.

“Suffice to state that a world without standards will make routine activities that we take for granted like making a call, surfing the web or using our ATM cards to withdraw money much more complicated and nearly impossible thus underscoring the theme of this year’s celebration, “he said.

According to him, it is only through compliance to international standards that Nigeria can become an exporter of more processed agro-allied and manufactured products, saying that the pursuit of this reward of quality explains SON’s increasing investment in the National Quality Infrastructure components such as standards development, testing laboratories, metrology institute, certification, accreditation service, conformity assessment and enforcement schemes.

Kehinde said through different initiatives ranging from the e-product registration, awareness and sensitisation programmes with stakeholders, media engagement, SON has been able to bring the influx of substandard goods in the country down to 30 per cent.

“We are not in this fight alone. We are collaborating with customs and all other sister agencies to track substandard products in the country. Nigerians are now being exposed to the activities of SON, we now have many Nigerians lodging complaints when they buy substandard products,” she said.

The Group Head, Chemical Technology Group, SON, Mr. Agboola Afolayan, said the World standards day meant a lot to the agency because it serves as a day to remind people about the benefits of standards, saying that without standards, a lot of products in the market would end up killing Nigerians. “We want people to take the message to every member of their families to let them know that safety and standards work together and should never be ignored. If this happens, it will be at our own peril because it may take lives,” he added

The Quality Assurance Manager, Dulfil Prima Foods, producers of popular household food, indomie noodles, Arshkay Murdia, commended SON for the initiative and also called on the agency to organise more awareness campaigns to drive standards enforcement in the country.

“This is a very great initiative by SON to enlighten people about the dangers of substandard products and we as an indomie team, we always have our word for it. We are calling on SON to have this kind of initiative more often so that more people will be aware of the negative impact of substandard products,” he said.

As for Grand Petroleum and Chemicals, Ebosele Oiku, said the whole idea of “the walk” was geared towards ensuring zero tolerance for substandard goods in Nigeria.

[ThisDay]

headline