Abuja – Dr Joseph Odumodu, Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to ensure the certification of export products to meet international standard.
Odumodu made the call in Abuja at the second meeting of the Project Steering Committee (PSC) of the National Quality Infrastructure Project for Nigeria (NQI).
He said that if the measure was implemented, it would prevent incidents of banning of Nigerian products from being exported to the European Union (EU) countries.
“I think it is also important that as we build quality infrastructure, we must also take cognisance of certain procedures.
“My recommendation is that we need to build this component as early as possible; we need to have accreditation and we need to have accredited laboratories.
“The point is that government must put certain measures in place and I expect that every product becomes exportable and must be certified by an accredited laboratory in Nigeria.
“The days of having to take products abroad to test them and then they are rejected is over; they should have a 100 per cent acceptance; that is the only acceptable thing,’’ he said.
Odumodu explained that the country must move forward to institute quality infrastructure that would not only export products but those of international standard.
He stressed the need to institute a system that would enlighten consumers to know that they had the right to reject inferior products in the market.
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The DG emphasised the need for stakeholders to be committed towards achieving the mandate and called for prosecution of offenders of the law.
He said the major constraint of certification activities in the country was that it had been limited to the public sector.
The DG said the programme was now engaging the private sector, adding that once the sector was involved, certification would be a big business in the country.(NAN)
