SON confiscates N4b fake products

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The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has confiscated substandard products worth over four billion naira in the last eight months.

The Director-General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr Joseph Odumodu, said this, adding that prevalence of sub-standard goods had reduced from 85 to 40 per cent with the launch of the National Coalition on the Zero Tolerance Campaign.

According to Odumodu, the organisation was able to attain this feat due to various steps it has taken since he assumed office.

He said, “I commissioned a baseline study, which showed that through a six-point agenda, including consumer protection and engagement, improving the competitiveness of local products, aggressive conformity assessment, global relevance and capacity building, improvements have been made.

In a statement by its Director/Head of laboratory Services, Mr. Louis Njoku, said the six-point agenda was designed to help industries build their quality assurance infrastructure while complying with SON’s zero tolerance against fake and sub-standard goods.

“These and other measures stabilised the market and reduced the prevalence of sub-standard goods from an initial level of 85 to less than 40 per cent in less than three years, and raised the level of consumer awareness from almost 0 to as high as 65 per cent.

“Now, the agency’s ‘operation flush’ promises to reduce the level of sub-standard products to one per cent by the end of 2015,” the statement said.

Under Odumodu, SON has granted country-wide ISO certifications, the ISO 9000, to several firms and public institutions and has enumerated many more standards in the market, especially for local produce.

It also embarked on standardisation of cement as a means to stop building collapse. “The inclusion of labeling, date of manufacture, expiration and other measures will enable SON’s officials towards effective monitoring, enforcement and flushing out of all quacks in the sector.