Over 60 per cent of the containers entering? Nigeria? are not inspected at the ports.
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has? revealed.?
Director- General, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, said these containers were sneaked into the country without being subjected? to the compulsory? statutory checks under the guise of the fast-track system employed at the port to clear goods in order to meet the 48- hour deadline.
Odumodu who spoke during an interactive forum with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI),hinted that his agency was compiling? a list of all warehouses where these products were kept and would storm and? impound the goods for standards verification and possibly confiscation.
“Last week 50 containers were destroyed. We are now issuing destruction certificates and all these are to make sure that sub-standard products do not find their way into the Nigerian market anymore,” he said.
He also disclosed that in the last one month, over 100 SON Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) certificates were found to have been faked, saying that SON has launched an e-payment platform where agents would be deployed to confirm payments online and provide certificates.
Also speaking at the event, the President, LCCI, Mr. Femi Deru, commended SON for its various initiatives to sensitise and enlighten the public on the important matters of standards and quality.
According to him: “There is evidently a strong relationship between standards and national development. Unfortunately this fact is often not appreciated by many,” he said.
He pointed out that there were issues with substandard cables which had resulted in fire accidents, razing down buildings and destroying valuable assets.Again, substandard building materials such as iron rods were a major factor in some cases of? building collapse that the country had witnessed.
“More importantly, many factories have closed down because of the importation of fake and substandard products, which are often much cheaper even though more expensive in the long run.
“This interactive forum offers a good platform to discuss such issues in a cordial manner and in a way that would benefit our economy and our country,” he said.
He also noted some constraints in the application of these standards, stating that these include low level of awareness, high compliance cost, ineffective administration and enforcement, and evasion of conformity tests.
“For many small scale industrialists, the harsh operating conditions in the country make compliance difficult. Besides, many of them do not have access to modern technology that would enable them make products of the desired standards,” he said.
He added that there was also a problem induced by the general poverty situation in the country, adding that many consumers would rather opt for low quality and cheap products, rather than something of high quality.