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SON seeks law against exportation of uncertified products

By on August 19, 2015

the Standards Organisation of Nigeria on Monday said there was a need to put in place a law that would prohibit the exportation of products not duly certified by the appropriate authorities.

The Director-General, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, stated this while speaking on the sidelines of the launch of ‘Operation Flush’

Operation Flush is a local initiative of SON in partnership with the civil society to rid the country of substandard products.

The European Union had put a ban on the exportation of some Nigerian agricultural products up until June next year due to noncompliance with standards.

The products are beans, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish and meat, peanut chips and palm oil.

But the SON DG, while speaking on the ban, said the best way to address the situation was to discourage the exportation of products not certified by the relevant agencies.

He said currently, there was no law in Nigeria mandating exporters to get certification from SON before shipping their products abroad.

He said, “None of the products that were shipped out of the country had gone through any process of certification.

“As of today, there is no law that mandates an exporter to get a certification from SON before they ship their products abroad.

“Now, we need to get back to our permanent secretary and other people to ensure that there is a template to guarantee that. The only thing government should do is to disallow exportation of products that are not certified. Once that is done, when you see any importer that contravenes that, you deal with him.”

On the significance of the launch of the Operation Flush, Odumodu said that it was an initiative aimed at cutting down on the level of substandard products from the present level of 40 per cent to 10 per cent.

He explained that the initiative to be done in partnership with the CSOs was aimed at expanding the scope of war against substandard products by involving both the retailers and the wholesalers.

 

 

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