Need for quality in local production

WITH the ongoing economic crisis in the country, comes the need for Nigerians to buy locally-made goods, but one of the problems we are having in the country is the quality of our local products. I once made a decision to be buying locally-made products, but the experience I had while using some products were not good enough. Let me be specific, as a nursing mother, I opted for a locally-made baby diaper after using a foreign-made one for a while.

I had to change because I also agree that buying locally-made products will help keep our workers in their jobs, while not providing jobs for foreign workers. However, I must say that I had terrible experience with this locally-made diaper as it leaked faeces whenever my baby defeacated. I had no option than to switch back to imported diapers which are more reliable, despite the fact that they cost more than the locally-made ones.

While I agree with the fact that we should support our local industries, the quality of our products are not encouraging at all, and it is as a result of this that I want to charge our local manufacturers to manufacture products that are of high quality that will match the ones imported into the country. No one will see a high quality product and go for a less quality one; so if we are calling on Nigerians to buy locally-made goods so that we can beat this recession, then they will only accept if such products are of standard quality.

What determines what one buys is quality, and not where such product is made; for example, some businessmen go to China to import fake products in order to make more money. These businessmen specifically tell the Chinese manufacturers to produce cheaper low-quality products for them, which will cost less, while hoping for huge returns when they bring such products to the country to sell.

This, therefore, means that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has a lot to do in this regard, as the quality of a product determines what Nigerians buy. If we, therefore, want Nigerians to patronise made-in-Nigeria goods, then the quality should be of high standard.

• Yemisi Soares,

Lagos.