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We will reduce substandard goods to 15% – Odumodu

By on December 5, 2015

The influx of substandard goods into the country would be reduce to 15 percent, the Director General of Standard Organisation (SON), Dr. Joseph Odumodu has said.

While decrying the high level of substandard products in the country and their negative effect on the health of the citizenry, Odumodu called for the support and co-operation of all stakeholders to ensure that the challenge is tackled headlong.

“In the next few years, we will reduce substandard products to 15 per cent”, he declared.

The SON helmsman, who spoke at an enlightenment and sensitisation campaign organised for freight forwarders at the headquarters of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) , Apapa, Lagos said the organisation destroyed substandard goods worth N10 billion in the last four years.

He revealed that the items were destroyed from 2011 to date. Freight forwarders should collaborate with the organisation to halt importation of substandard products.

His words: “Now, we are going through the period of change since the election of President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected based on his honesty and integrity. I am pleading to you all to change from all ramifications because many people are dying day by day of cancer as a result of substandard goods coming into the country. You should all be part of the positive change by complying with the e-Product Registration and e-Provision Clearance Certificate platform”.

Odumodu hailed the management of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for supporting the organisation, even as he called for more support to ensure that the right thing is done rid the country of unwholesome products.

Founder of NAGAFF, Chief Boniface Aniebonam in his remarks, enjoined freight forwarders and clearing agents to collaborate with SON to reduce the proliferation of substandard products in the country.

He said that seized containers should be checked and conveyed to SON base by the officials of the organisation instead of checking points.

According to him, enlightenment platforms and strategic processes can help in solving all the problems encountered during cargo importation as well as cargo clearance,” Aniebonam said.

He stressed the need for continued campaign to remind agents on the actual time for moving out cargo from ports.

NAGAFF Deputy President, Mr. Oluwole Adeyemi said that trade could not be facilitated under what he called the “rigid and uncoordinated process and procedures” in the nation’s seaports, airports and international land borders.

Adeyemi stressed the need for harmonisation and coordination to enable his members to blend with the era of e-commerce and trade facilitation in the country, even as he hailed SON for the introduction of e-Product Registration and e-Provision Clearance Certificate platform.

“We wish to advise SON management to go further by creating a forum where our national officers and other members will be given proper training and sensitisation programme. This sensitisation will help our members in depth understanding of the scheme.”

 

[ThisDay]