COVID-19: SON Deploys 29 Int’l Standards On Essential Products

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has deployed 29 relevant international standards to support the manufacturing and importation of essential materials to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
SON Director-General, Mr Osita Aboloma, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, yesterday.
Aboloma said that the standards were deployed to meet emergency needs occasioned by COVID-19 globally while the process for the adoption would continue unhindered in spite of the lockdown.
He said that the deployment of 28 standards was through the International Organisation for Standar-disation (ISO), while one was from the African Organisation for Standar-disation (ARSO) on alcohol based hand sanitisers.
“The standards, which are being provided at no cost to local manufacturers, are being made available to the National Committee on Sustainable Production and Delivery of Essential Commodities during the pandemic of which SON is a member.
“This is to guide local manufacturers as well as to provide a benchmark for adjudging all imported products in the category during the pandemic.’’
He said that SON had received free, unlimited usage of the ISO web conferencing system (zoom) for national standards development work only.
“With this offer, Nigeria, as an eligible member, will be assigned a zoom account for developing countries, which we can share with our Technical Committee (TC) members and experts, creating the equivalent of a `virtual conference room’ at the national level.
“Nigeria’s TC meetings could continue largely, while its stakeholders and experts keep safe in this time of bans on gatherings and travels,’’ he said.
Aboloma told TC members nationwide to expect invitations from the secretariat for participation in the consideration and adoption of several international standards from ISO resources, to support global efforts in dealing with the pandemic.
He listed some of the international standards compiled by ISO to support global efforts in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.