SON Extends Deadlines On Products Standard

The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) yesterday extended the deadline to clear the country of substandard products to August15.

Dr Joseph Odumodu, SON Director-General, disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting at Alaba market in Lagos.

He said that the extension of the deadline followed pleas from traders that the former May 31 deadline for zero tolerance for substandard products be extended.

Odumodu urged the traders to clear their containers at the ports before the deadline, adding that marketers that failed to comply would have their goods confiscated and destroyed.

“We want to have the confidence to say within the next two years that Alaba is the place to get quality products,” he said.

According to him, the only way to curb this menace is to remove unscrupulous people from the system.

He said that marketers would make the business environment in Nigeria to be better if they insisted on importing genuine products.

“We are ready to support people who are willing to trade in genuine products,” he said.

The SON director-general advised importers to insist on buying only goods that met international standards.

“Our core mandate is to protect and safeguard Nigerians from dangerous products,” he said.

Dr Celestine Ezeani, Chairman of Electronics Dealers in the market, had earlier urged SON to give marketers the opportunity to decongest the port of their goods.

Ezeani said that they had spent a lot of money to import the goods.

He said that their dialogue with SON would go a long way in tackling headlong the challenges of substandard goods in Alaba market.