About 60 percent of products displayed in the nation’s markets are substandard and over 80 percent of them are from the far East countries, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) said in a communique.
SON said as part of its ongoing campaign against sale and circulation of substandard products in the country, bilateral agreements will be signed with exporter nations to issue certificates of free use in those countries.
Head of SON, Joseph Odumodu, said exporter nations will also be required to subscribe to a re-export regime in cases of any substandard products exported to Nigeria.
He said these in Lagos at the stakeholders’ interactive forum organised by his agency as part of its on-going war against substandard products in Nigeria.
Nigeria has already banned importation of fake and substandard products with effect from August 15.
According to a communiqué issued at the end of the forum, SON said it has destroyed substandard goods worth over N300 million seized by its officials in the last 3 months.
The communiqué said SON will establish market desks in all the major markets across the federation to receive complaints and intelligence reports on fake and substandard products and urged the collaboration of all stakeholders towards the success of this new initiative.
According to the communiqué, local manufacturers were urged to voluntarily comply with the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) of SON as an assurance to consumers of the high quality of made in Nigeria products.
The National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) called for the reduction of product registration charges for small scale industries.
It also called for the patronage of locally made products rather than imported substandard products.
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