The Federal Government has charged the Standard Organisation of Nigeria to ensure that good produced or imported into Nigeria can compete globally.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, said this on Tuesday in Lagos at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of SON.
Adebayo, who was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Evelyn Ngige, urged the agency to stick to its role in maintaining standards to support industrial and facilitate trade, while promoting investments in the nation’s economy.
Ngige said that the government was aware of the innovations by SON in making access to the agency by business owners efficient and effective.
“I want to add here that SON has a vital role to play in facilitating trade and ensuring that local goods and services compete favourably in international market by guaranteeing that excellence is maintained across all production lines in the country. This is even more important now that African Continental Free Trade Area has opened up the domestic market to all commerce in the African continent.”
Ngige charged the agency to remain committed to ensuring quality and continuous improvement of all goods produced locally or imported.
According to her, “As vice chairman of the PEBEC, I am well aware of the remarkable innovation of the SON that makes businesses access its services in an efficient and effective manner. This has resulted in the consistent and regular high ranking of SON by PEBEC. The constant high ranking of SON is heart-warming, especially to the ministry of Industry, Commerce and Investment.”
She said that the 50 years of SON had been remarkable in promoting value in every aspect of industrial production in Nigeria and also ensuring that products imported into the country were of high quality.
Earlier, the Director General of SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, had said that the agency’s last two years concentrated on some critical areas in the industry.
“SON has ensured faithful implementation of the Nigerian National Standardisation Strategy as the framework of the development and publication of National Standards and increasing our technical competence in conformity assessment services through the accreditation of our Product Certification Department.”
