Joseph Odumodu
The Director-General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr
Joseph Odumodu, has said that the agency has seized substandard products
worth four billion naira since the beginning of the year.
Odumodu made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, adding that in September, the agency
seized substandard telephone sets worth N350 million.
“In the last three days, we have confiscated over N350 million worth of telephone sets that are substandard.
“If I add that to the number I have earlier, we have a number of about four billion naira this year alone.
“I tell you that is not a thing of joy because all these products
were imported, paid for with genuine dollars and would be destroyed and
they are Nigerian money,’’ he said.
Odumodu called for a law to jail people involved in the importation of substandard products into the country.
According to him, the organisation now has a new act that confers additional power to prosecute offenders on it.
“I promise you that before the end of this year we may be celebrating
the jailing of, at least, one major substandard kingpin in Nigeria,’’
Odumodu said.
He said the organisation was doing everything possible to ensure that
the importation of substandard products into the country was reduced to
10 per cent by the end of the year.
“My target is before the end of this year, the organisation will
reduce substandard products from its current 40 per cent level to 10 per
cent. We have killed our industries because they are competing with
substandard products.
“ We need to do things that will make a lot of difference to us. When
I started the journey in 2011 we had a level of substandard products
with over 80 per cent in all the sectors.
“Today we are around 40 per cent to 45 per cent; in this new
dispensation we will reduce it further by 90 per cent,’’ Odumodu said.
He said the target would be achieved through the integration of SON’s
certification programme with the Nigeria Integrated Custom Information
System (NICIS).
The director-general said the computerisation of SON’s services and
the integration of SON’s e-product certificate into NICIS platform would
aid trade facilitation.
He said with the introduction of the platform, importers would find it easy to import goods.
“Right now if you want to bring in any products that are regulated by
us you do not need to come to SON’, you just deal with people we call
international and credited firms. They will give you what we call
product certificate, with it you can open your form M and when the
products come, they will also issue you the after testing aboard.
“They will give you certificate with which you can clear but the certificates are at the electronic level,’’ Odumodo said.
According to him, the importation of substandard products has caused the closure of many industries in Nigeria.
“When they bring substandard products, they are stopping Nigerian
companies from producing, employing people and making those products
available for Nigerians.
“Statistically, Nigerian made products account for less than five per
cent of substandard goods while imported products account for over 90
per cent of substandard products in terms of quantity. It is the
imported products that are essentially substandard so they are the ones
killing our economy,’’ he said.