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Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has expressed its readiness for the challenges and imminent implications of Nigeria’s signature to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement recently assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
SON said it has been working in close collaboration with other Ministries, Agencies and Departments of government as well as development partners to develop the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) to cater for the free movement of goods and services in Africa.
The Director General of the organisation, Osita Aboloma, stated this during a media chat on AfCFTA in Abuja.
He listed some of the NQI project already delivered by SON to include the National Metrology Institute nearing completion in Enugu; international accreditation of SON laboratories; its training and management systems certification services as well as ongoing automation of all services to stakeholders.
These, according to Aboloma, are aimed at promoting the ease of doing business in and with Nigeria.
The Director–General said SON has been championing the harmonisation of Standards within the ECOWAS region and the African continent through the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO).
Nigeria through SON holds the Chairmanship and Secretary of many of the Techincal Harmonisation Committees of ARSO in addition to promoting the participation of many stakeholders in Nigeria in the standards Harmonisation process, the SON helmsman disclosed.
Other preparatory steps towards the free movement of goods and services, according to Aboloma, include the development of Standards for artisanship such as carpentry, masonry, fashion design, painting among many others to ensure free exchange of the services particularly within West Africa.
Aboloma acknowledged the imminent challenge of combating the possible dumping of substandard and life-endangering products through the seaports since, according to him, the agency is not present to carry out quality verification of products on arrival.
He however stressed that the staff of the organisation will continue to deploy all strategies including the use of automation, intelligence gathering and compliance monitoring to protect Nigerian consumers from the menace of substandard and life-endangering products within available resources.
The SON Chief Executive extolled the existing robust collaboration among sister regulatory and security agencies in the fight against substandard products but called for greater synergy, stressing that no efforts should be spared in trying to protect the nation’s economy and the welfare of its people
