Business
Building Subsector Creates 3,000 Jobs Through SON
Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Joseph Odumodu says 3,000 jobs have been created in the building sub-sector at the grassroots through the organisation’s enforcement and regulation policies.
Odumodu spoke last Saturday, in Abuja, during a lecture entitled, “Global Standards in Local Production’’, at the 3rd Annual Seminar for Trade and Investment Correspondents and Editors.
According to him, SON’s emphasis on quality in the building sub-sector have also created awareness on the need to use quality products in the rural areas.
‘’Patronising sub-standard products causes Nigeria to be de-industrialising. It is naive, stupid, foolish and unproductive to be importing substandard products,’’ he said.
Odumodu said that importers who brought poor quality goods into Nigeria were “destroying our health, environment and our national lives’’.
He added. ‘’The importer loses when the sub-standard goods are destroyed by us.
‘’He or she loses both goods and money and causes Nigeria to lose also in terms of wasted money injected into an unproductive venture.’’
Odumodu said that SON had made grand strides in ensuring good quality in block, steel and rod production in the country.
The director general said that Nigeria had attained about 85 per cent capacity in steel and rod production, adding that there was potential for increased capacity in steel export.
Odumodu noted that the level of awareness among Nigerians not to buy sub-standard products was very low.
‘’Many people, out of poverty or lack of money, will deliberately buy sub-standard goods.
‘’This thinking is wrong and unfortunate because it pays to buy quality products for their durability and value,’’ he said.
However, he added: ‘’SON is ensuring that quality clearance and certification of products produced within the country or imported is taken more sacrosanct.’’
Odumodu urged the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to lend more support to SON to enable it to rid Nigeria of poor quality products, especially in the building sub-sector.