The federal government has commissioned in Ekiti State the zonal office of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and its well-equipped laboratory with a renewed commitment to clampdown of producers of fake and substandard products in the country.
Speaking during the commissioning in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital on Friday, the minister of Trade, Investment and Industry, Chief Niyi Adebayo said the inauguration of the facility in Ekiti would not only expand the activities of the organization from the state capital to all local government areas but would also reduce the cost and turnaround time for test results as against transporting product samples to laboratories in Lagos or Enugu.
The Minister explained that the best way to check the rate of deaths associated with substandard products was to imbibe a standard assurance culture by making use of the agency’s services, warning the government through SON would continue the clampdown by arresting and prosecuting offenders in the overall interest of the citizens.
According to him, “Let me use this opportunity to sound a note of warning to fraudsters and those engaging in the production of substandard products that SON is, by its amended Act of 2015, weaponized with teeth to arrest, confiscate and prosecute any offender or group of offenders who violate the laws relating to standards of goods and services in Nigeria.”
“The Organisation has recorded significant achievements in the prosecution of offenders in the past years, and more arrests and prosecutions are on the way especially for foreign nationals and their Nigerian collaborators who try to turn Nigeria into a dumping ground for sub-standard products. SON is coming hard on violators; and the Director General and his Management have assured me of their preparedness to work with individuals or groups to collectively improve the lives of Nigerians through standards and to make Nigeria stand tall in the comity of Nations.”
On his part, the Director General of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim said the new office complex and the laboratory would in no small enhance the services of the Organisation in certifying quality products for the use of the people.
“The commissioning of this office complex today signifies the resolve by SON management to bequeath a functional substructure as part of the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) to every state of the Federation. This will help improve our services by bringing it closer to the people especially in the areas of conformity assessment and laboratory testing of products to relevant standards.
“Testing of products to relevant Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) and International Standards by SON laboratories means products from Ekiti State and environs can compete favourably locally and through export at the international markets, especially with the ongoing implementation of the AfCTA agreement,” he said.
On his part, the Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi called on both local and international Industrialists to avail themselves of the new facilities and invest in the state in an effort towards the much-needed industrialization and economic viability.
The Governor, who noted that the inauguration of SON’s permanent office was timely with the recent feasibility study and design of Ekiti Special Economic zone infrastructure currently ongoing through the ADB middle income technical assistance grants, added that it would enhance the economy activities of the state like never before with standard and quality assurance in its proper place.
While reiterating the frontline position of agriculture in the state, Fayemi solicited the support of the SON to the farmers and processors through value addition to farm processes and products to help increase commercial activities in the state.
He said his administration would always maintain zero tolerance for substandard products and services in all its ramifications adding that the project would compliment the efforts of his administration in ensuring standards thereby boosting the socio-economic activities of the state aimed at saving people from wasting financial resources.
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