‘Nigeria losing war against sub-standard goods due to SON’s absence at ports’

Dr. Paul Angya is the acting Director-General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). A lawyer and scholar, specialising in standardisation and consumer protection laws, he explains, in this interview with Business Editor, ADE OGIDAN and FEMI ADEKOYA the raison d’etre behind the dominance of sub-standard goods in the nation’s markets, despite laws empowering the agency to act, even as he bemoans the pangs of these unsavoury goods on the nation’s economy.
So far, will you say SON has been able to successfully address the issue of sub-standard products?
SON has done very well in addressing the issue of quality in Nigeria in terms of its primary mandate, which is to elaborate and publish‎ standards for the public consumption. SON has elaborated standards probably for all available products in this country. There are existing standards, which form the basis for evaluating the quality of products. In terms of quality assurance for in the locally manufactured goods, SON has achieved about 90 per cent success. I will say probably all industries that are producing in Nigeria legitimately, including the medium and the small-scale enterprises, are constantly under SON’s inspection and auditing, both in their processes and their products for certification. I can even tell you to a degree of certainty that products manufactured in Nigeria, on the average, conform with quality parameters and so to that extent, SON has achieved a major success.
Which products are yet to be covered by your standardisation initiatives?
The areas that are not covered are goods produced in the dark. These are those being produced illegitimately from illegal factories and those who are faking other people’s products. Those people who start production at 1am and finish by 4am and those who produce behind closed doors. There is nothing SON can do about it. The areas that are not covered are not in terms of product standards but in terms of our inability to enforce the application of standards to those people producing in the dark. Otherwise, we have standards for every product produced and consumed in Nigeria. You will not believe that we have standards for products like garri, kunu and zobo. So, we have standards for virtually everything that is available in Nigeria. It is the implementation of these standards in certain sectors that forms our limitations and then of course, substandard products that are imported from outside Nigeria for which we are not able to or we are not allowed to verify and enforce their conformity with standards.
So, those kinds of products are the areas where I will say our percentage of success in terms of quality assurance is low, but for those that are legitimately producing in Nigeria, industries that are registered and open to our inspection, audit and advice, implementation of standards is near 100 per cent.