Business
SON Urges Traders To Dispose Fake Products
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), has warned traders in the FCT to remove all sub-standard products in the market within two weeks or face prosecution.
Its Director General, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, gave the warning at a Market Enlightenment/Sensitisation Seminar in Abuja.
Odumodu, who was represented by the Director of Human Capital in SON, Mr Paul Angya, said marketers should always confirm if products had been tested with evidence of test certificates.
He listed the country of origin, manufacturing and expiry dates, guaranty/warranty, and label, among others, as some of the things the importer and purchaser should check before transaction.
Odumodu said that traders should imbibe the tenets of self regulation by removing all those products that did not conform to standard specifications within the next two weeks.
“SON is poised to invoke the authority provided under its enabling act to enforce the provisions of the Nigeria Industrial Standards after the grace period.
“It will then prosecute defaulters,” he said.
The director general said that the programme was in furtherance of the zero tolerance to sub-standard products initiative which was intended to phase out sub-standard products in the country by the end of 2012.
The SON boss said that the organisation was collaborating with the Consumer Protection Council to establish help desks in major markets to provide assistance to consumers when purchasing products.
Earlier, the Head of the Abuja Zonal Office of SON, Mr Gambo Dimka, showed stakeholders how to identify sub-standard products from an array of products displayed.
The displayed products were sockets, cables, stabilisers and some textile materials.
He urged marketers to ensure that products supplied to them had the Standards Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Program (SONCAP) certificate.
The Managing Director of the Abuja Markets Management Ltd. Mr Abubakar Faruk, commended SON for its efforts at “sanitising the market of fake and sub-standard products.’’
Farouk urged SON not to make the exercise a one-stop event, but “to build on it in order to reduce the avoidable pains that enforcement brings about.’’
He called on Abuja traders to take advantage of the programme to weed the markets of such products.
In his contributions, the Chairman, Dei Dei Market Traders Association, Mr Raphael Onah, appealed to SON to make the efforts at eradicating the influx of sub-standard products a comprehensive one.
Onah said such products passed through the borders, seaports and airports before getting to the markets.
He stressed the need for authorities at such entry points to rise to the occasion.