SON and dangers of substandard products

When few days ago, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON)  sealed 13 steel companies across the nation for standards infractions, the imageries evoked by that action were those of gory carnage, calamity and sorrow, associated with  buildings collapse in Nigeria. Such avoidable human and material losses, many believed, were in a way, nipped in the […]

When few days ago, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON)  sealed 13 steel companies across the nation for standards infractions, the imageries evoked by that action were those of gory carnage, calamity and sorrow, associated with  buildings collapse in Nigeria.

Such avoidable human and material losses, many believed, were in a way, nipped in the bud by SON by applying its regulatory powers in that circumstance. Just last year alone, Lagos state witnessed a number of such unfortunate incidents that recorded several fatalities.

Some of those incidents were attributed to substandard building materials innocently procured by unsuspecting property owners, or as a result of cutting corners by builders only motivated by unfair profit.

Speaking on the sealed factories, the Chairman, SON Task Force  on Steel, Mr Enebi Onucheyo, said that “Laboratory tests and analysis carried out on the samples obtained from the factories revealed that most of them failed to meet the minimum requirements for diameter and mass per meter as provided in the Nigeria Industrial Standard (NIS 117:2004).”

These companies, which he said were located in Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Abia and Edo states, were shut until further notice following nationwide market surveillance carried out by the SON Task Force between November 2019 and January 2020.

Such activities of rogue manufacturers and importers, who cut corners just for selfish profiteering are also observed in many other sectors. On the surface, these products look genuine. With trademarks and brand names already known, the unsuspecting consumer, reaches out for them. Added to an attractive lower price in some instances, the buyer falls for the offer, excited that he has made a kill. But that is the end of the story and the beginning of another chapter in his travails. The goods, which looked genuine and relatively cheaper, are after all, not what the buyer had expected. They are fake or substandard products, cloned to look like the original ones. For the consumer, his unending tale of sorrow, commences. That is, if he does not lose his life or that of any member of his family in the process.

This has been the lot of Nigerians – no thanks to the antics of manufacturers and sellers of fake and adulterated products. These merchants of death, are virtually in all sectors of the economy. From such daily consumables as food items, toiletries, drugs and basic household utensils, they also pervade such complex sectors as building materials, motor spare parts and accessories. At whatever angle they operate, they project one result – huge loss to the consumer.

For Nigeria, that is a bad story. Aside the negative impacts of the trend on the economy, it tells very much bad on the country’s reputation abroad. It scares genuine investors who nurse deep fear on return of their investments. It discourages invention and genuine enterprise.

This is why the job of SON, charged with improving life through standardisation and quality assurance, is not a mean task. Since its establishment with an Enabling Act Number 56 of December 1971, SON has had rough runs with Nigerian and foreign businessmen and women bent on flooding the country with fake and substandard products. Curiously, as the organisation comes up with checks on the activities of these unprincipled entrepreneurs, some of them change their tactics.

These fraudsters, who are sometimes very vicious; who sometimes can go to any length in an attempt to cow regulatory officials, however seem to be having their match in the current leadership of the organisation, headed by Osita Aboloma, a lawyer. To curtail the activities of the fake producers, SON is approaching the battle from many fronts. In this regard, it has deliberately put in place, a robust development process for market-driven standards as well as championing the harmonisation of standards within the West African Region and the Continent to promote seamless trading across borders.

In order to give further bite to its regulatory powers and essentially protect Nigerians from fake and life-endangering products, the agency is even taking the fight against manufacturers and importers of substandard products to key origins of compromised products. Bent on crushing these substandard products cartel, SON DG Aboloma in July 2018, officially requested for the blacklisting and prosecution by Chinese government, of seven companies responsible for the importation of many substandard products in Nigeria from China.

These companies, according to the DG, were among those identified to have “persistently circumvented Nigeria’s import regime by their deliberate refusal to comply with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria off-shore Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP).”

Aboloma had stated in a letter to the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, that the activities of these companies “have impacted negatively on the perception of the Nigerian people on the quality of goods and services from the Peoples Republic of China. And unless immediate steps are taken to arrest the situation, incurable reputational damage would be done to the Government and People of China. We are of the view that every step necessary should be taken to prevent them from jeopardising the excellent trade and cultural relationship between the Government and Peoples of China and Nigeria”, he said.

This development, Bola Fashina, SON’s spokesman said, has started yielding positive results. The deal would ensure that factories in China reject orders from Nigeria that do not meet the approved Nigerian standards.

Other measures aimed at strengthening the standardisation mechanism by SON include the building of an ultra-modern laboratory complex in Lagos as well as a National Metrology Institute in addition to an existing Engineering Laboratory at Enugu and a Textile and Leather Laboratory located in Kaduna as part of the development of the National Quality Infrastructure.

The modalities for accomplishing these feats formed part of a recent briefing Aboloma, the Director-General, had with the Ministers of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo and Ambassador Maryam Katagum.

Experts situate these achievements as being in line with the mission statement of the organisation, which seeks to promote consumer confidence and global competitiveness of Nigerian products and services through standardisation and quality assurance. The aspect that however has more endearing impact on the man in the street, is that, which concerns market surveillance, awareness creation as well as receiving consumer complaints and feedback for investigation and resolution. Through this window, dubious business men and women have been identified and exposed. By it also, consumer education has been heightened and lives, saved.

But these criminal counterfeiters and their collaborators are apparently not the happiest in recent times as they remain in the receiving end of SON’s firm and uncompromising stance against their nefarious activities.

 

Abubakar, a development journalist, writes from Zaria