FIIRO’s ISO certification will boost Nigeria’s export market —Minister

MINISTER of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has said that the presentation of ISO 17025:2005 certificate to the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) by the Nigerian National Accreditation Service (NINAS) will boost Nigeria’s export market.

He stated this at the presentation of the certificate to FIIRO by the agency.

Dr Onu, who received the certificate on behalf of the institute, said that the ISO certificate would enable FIIRO to analyse food and non-food products and to certify them for export, adding that FIIRO had been conducting research according to international standards.

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According to him, this certification will enable researches conducted in FIIRO to be easily published in international journals. This will greatly assist our market with potentials to create more jobs, additional wealth to eliminate extreme poverty.

The minister added that the ministry was committed to providing strategic guidelines to ensure that all the nation’s laboratories were accredited and challenged other agencies in the ministry to do their best for the country.

Earlier, the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the institute, Professor (Mrs.) Gloria Elemo, said that the implementation of ISO 17025:2005 was aimed at accelerating the industrialisation of the country by the utilisation of country’s raw materials and by upgrading indigenous production technologies.

In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of NINAS, Celestine Okanya,  called on the minister to encourage other laboratories of the ministry’s agencies to strive to achieve accreditation.

Also speaking, the Director-General/Chief Executive of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Mr. Segun Awolowo, said that ISO/IEC 17025:2005 certification would boost the confidence of FIIRO’s clients who used her laboratories since it was certified by a third party independent certifier.

Mr. Awolowo added that products tested at the laboratories would compete favourably in the market place both at local and export markets.