The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trades and Investment has threatened that it will deal decisively with persons who deliberately alter the settings of their weighing instruments with the intention to cheat their unsuspecting customers.
The Director of Weights, and Measures in the Ministry, Mrs Comfort Emenbu is the Director, therefore, warned traders and other business owners to ensure that they use correct and approved weighing instruments in order not to fall short of the requirements of the business.
It has therefore commenced its annual surveillance of weights, measures, weighing instruments, measuring instruments and counting instruments in markets, shopping malls, and gas and petroleum retail outlets in Gombe and Bauchi States.
The exercise is part of the efforts of the Ministry to protect consumers and buyers of goods to ensure that they were not shortchanged in whatever form while genuinely transacting business.
It is being facilitated by the Department of Weights and Measures of the Ministry in order to ensure that buyers get value for their money.
An Assistant Director in the Ministry, Engineer Geoffrey Jwan represented the Director and the Zonal Coordinator of the Department of Weights and Measures, Mr Isah Ahmed who jointly addressed newsmen in Gombe at the commencement of the exercise.
They explained that the survey was aimed at getting first-hand information from the field from users of weighing and measuring instruments for trade and to create awareness on the right use of the instruments.
According to Engineer Geoffrey Jwan, “Weights are scales used for weighing products for sale. For example, cement, rice, flour, etc are packaged in standard sizes of 10, 25 and 50 kilograms” .
He also said that “The department of weights and measures is the custodian of primary standards of the kilogram by which all measurements for trade using scales should be traced to for accuracy”.
The Assistant Director added that “On the other hand, the measures are capacity measures used for measuring volumes of liquids and solids for sale.”
“For example, pumps used in filling stations, filling machines used in water and beverage bottling plants, the ‘mudu’ (indigenous measures) used for measuring grains in markets”, he further explained.
The Zonal Coordinator of the Department of Weights and Measures, Mr Isah Ahmed added that weights and measures were listed on the exclusive legislation list of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria since 1960; which led to the enactment of laws and
regulations on the use of weights, measures, weighing, measuring and counting instruments for trade-in 1962.
He observed that most users of weighing and measuring instruments for trading are not aware of the salient provisions of the weighs and measures act.
He urged them to always buy instruments only from vendors who have obtained certificates of patent approval from the Department of Weights and Measures in line with regulation 76 to the act to avoid the use of substandard weights or measures, which will cause them to
contravene certain provisions of the act.
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