SON collaborates with MAN to check influx of substandard materials 

Dikachi Franklin, Owerri

The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) says that one of its mandates includes eliminating the continued influx of substandard products into the country with the collaborative efforts of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria(MAN), this is as it says that its  priority is to protect local and genuine manufacturers in the country.

SON says also that  it is working seriously to find a user-friendly as well as cost-effective way of introducing Product Authentication Marks(PAM), this is as the agency is further working  out some modalities to reintroduce a more user-friendly version, Farouk Salim, the director general of SON says, in a report made available to Business A.M.

Farouk,  while on courtesy visit to  Mansur Ahmed,  the president of MAN expressed its desire to make it voluntary  for industrialists and compulsory for imported products.

Farouk suggested  that in other to offer what he described as valuable services  to the manufacturing sector without any financial burden to manufacturers ,  that manufacturers should push for a legislation that one percent of the tax paid by manufacturers  to the government  be made available to SON for the running of the agency.

He further disclosed the agency’s plan to train its staff in-house to use customer platforms to track  and monitor imports, embark on broad based enlightenment Programmes , consultations and upscale brand public relations management  to ensure that SON returns to the Nigerian ports to enable it  do its statutory mandates.

Saying that the officers of the Nigeria Customs  Service (NCS)  at the Nigerian ports were not trained  to identify,  analyse  and classify items that have compliance  issues with standards.

Meanwhile, MAN’s president had commended the pursuit of Farouk and expressed the support of  MAN to give a frontal attack  to influx of substandard products.

Mansur  also applauded the commitments of  Farouk towards the resuscitation of MAN-SON forum, which he said had enjoyed  a good working relationship, formalised in 2013 by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and  amended in 2019.