Salim: SON Winning Campaign against Substandard Products

Director General/Chief Executive of the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), Mallam Farouk Salim in this interview disclose how SON confiscated and mopped up sub-standard products running into billions of Naira since he came on board. Gilbert Ekugbe presents the excerpts:

How do you feel on your new duty post?

I am grateful to President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) for giving me the opportunity to further contribute to national development through the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

Please, be rest assured that I am here to make SON better by building on existing structures and achievements made over the years, to improve on our service delivery as well as relationships with stakeholders, including the media. SON is committed to strengthening its partnerships with SMEs, the media, operators, manufacturers, however, journalists need to be vanguards in the fight against fake and sub-standard goods.

What’s your take on AfCFTA implementation, and how can local manufacturers take advantage of the opportunities offered by the protocol?

Continuous efforts are being made to improve standards of products and eliminate substandard goods in the country. We have done enough enforcement, public awareness, and sensitisation programmes on how to check the unwholesome products that are entering our country. We are working tirelessly within, outside and underground, to improve activities of the organisation so that it can serve the country better.

This is very important, because under the new African free trade agreement, goods will be crossing borders without too much hindrances. So, what that means for our country is that, if our manufacturers are not producing standard goods, the products will not cross over to the other countries, because other countries will set standards too and they will expect goods coming to their countries to be up to standards.

So, it is our responsibility as an agency to ensure that locally made products are up to standards. We are also making sure that the influx of substandard goods in the markets decreases to the barest minimum. Governments should also impose and enforce consequences and sanctions against products or persons producing sub-standard products. We have equally emphasised the need to harmonise standards within the continent in order to enjoy the full benefits of the trade pact. We should know that harmonisation of standards would go a long way to check activities of unscrupulous importers and dealers of fake and substandard goods who would want to take advantage of the trade deal to carry out their nefarious acts.

AfCFTA has magnified the need for standards to be regionally harmonised to promote intra-African trade. SON has been providing technical assistance and support to genuine local manufacturers as well as protect them from unfair competition. We are also encouraging local manufacturers and exporters to step up their game by ensuring that their goods and services are not only acceptable but also competitive at the international markets.

The agreement also places healthy competitive pressure on Nigerian producers serving the domestic economy as they are challenged to upgrade their operations and improve their products packaging to compete with other producers on the continent.

How do you intend to ensure that the campaign against the influx of substandard goods into Nigeria is won convincingly?

The issue of curbing the influx and distribution of substandard and life-threatening products is being approached from many dimensions. Some of our staff have undertaken training programmes with the Nigeria Customs Service on the operations of the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information Services (NICIS II). We are also in discussion for a full integration into the process for operational access and control of SON regulated imports.

When fully achieved, that would assist us to a very large extent in preventing sub-standard products from entry into Nigeria without any delay at the ports. This is because we have invested in facilities near the Apapa, Tin Can and Onne ports where quality verification of suspected sub-standard products can be carried out.

We have already initiated engagements with key importers across the country to flush out the bad eggs amongst them and promote self-regulation in our collective interest.

SON state offices nationwide have also been directed to intensify our market survey activities to monitor the performance of locally certified and imported products in the market place.

What would be your reaction regarding effective enforcement of standards since your assumption of office and what are the results so far?

We have made quite a number of seizures. Seizures have increased tremendously and responses from stakeholders and market associations indicate that SON is winning the war against substandard goods. Specifically, the agency during this period confiscated over N600million worth of stuffed substandard tyres in a warehouse in Ogun State.

We seized two containers of stuffed imported, used tyres in Port Harcourt; the prosecution of standards infractions relating to sub-standard lubricants, electric cables, forgery of SON clearing documents, logos, and other breaches. We mopped up substandard LPG cylinders in Suleija, seized adulterated engine oil in Kano and Lagos States; destroyed sub-standard products in Katsina State; expired LPG cylinders were mopped up from different parts of Anambra State and destroyed in Enugu in February, 2021.

Also six containers of stuffed imported tyres and substandard LPG cylinders intercepted from multiple sources were destroyed in Lagos in February 2021. Two containers of imported used, stuffed tyres seized in Port Harcourt were destroyed in Enugu in March 2021, among other enforcement exercises.

The SON legal department is currently prosecuting about six standards infractions in courts across the country. The stakeholders responses have been encouraging and recently we have carried out surveys which indicated that quality of steel products have also increased very much as we get this information from contractors and dealers. We are getting very good responses from stakeholders and the markets about the quality of steel products and cables.

What would you consider as some of your landmark achievements and what should Nigerians expect going forward?

In more than 10 months since my assumption of duty, we have interacted extensively with the different stakeholders on how we can collectively take SON to the next level for the overall good of the Nigerian economy and the welfare of her people.

As part of efforts in this regard, an independent committee of distinguished Nigerians was set up and charged with the responsibility of taking a critical look at our structure, processes, practices and service offerings as well as public perception of the agency.

This was in order to help us develop a template to address operational, service delivery and staff welfare challenges. We have done this to entrench equity and fairness as well as provide greater opportunities for staff to better contribute to the attainment of organisational goals. We have since been implementing many of the recommendations of that committee.

We are committed to improving on our communications with stakeholders at all levels to get greater buy-in into our programmes and activities that are targeted at customer satisfaction, consumer protection and welfare as well as the positive growth of the nation’s economy.

We are providing a more conducive atmosphere for our staff to deliver on the mandate of SON and collaborate more with our different stakeholders to improve ease of doing business, ensure economic diversification as well as industrial growth.

Already, we are working with the National Assembly to strengthen our quality infrastructure such as equipping regional laboratories to bring our services nearer to the stakeholders and make greater contributions to the diversification of the nation’s economy. The capacity of the National Metrology Institute is already being enhanced with acquisition of new equipment for calibration activities in diverse areas of measurement like flow and volume.

We are embarking on aggressive marketing of our key service offerings such as: Product Certification, Internationally Accredited Laboratory Services, Internationally Recognised Management Systems Training Services; Internationally Accredited Management Systems Certification Services, among others. Luckily, SON already has a crop of highly competent staff in various fields of standardisation. So, my job is to mobilise and encourage them to improve substantially on their outputs.

Sir, Nigeria is reputed to be amongst the best producers of electric cables in the world, but the same cannot be said of iron and steel products. What is SON doing in this regard?

As part of measures to ensure that steel products from Nigeria can compete favourably with others internationally, we have directed that going forward, steel manufacturers in the country must calibrate the equipment used in the production of steel rods and reinforcement bars or face persecution.

It is no longer business as usual. We want to ensure that all equipment used in measuring various parameters are calibrated in the country. We have acquired latest measuring instruments to ensure compliance to the standards of equipment used in the steel, maritime, oil and gas and other industries.

All weigh bridges, universal textile machines, among others, must be calibrated to achieve equity in business, while also ensuring that products do not fall short of the requirements of standards.

We are doing all these so that consumers will get value for their money; manufacturers will be happy because they are making products that meet the requirements of SON and therefore locally and globally accepted.

This means Nigerians will be happy to use the steel products to build structures that will stand the test of time in order to stem the incidences of collapsed buildings and construction failure and also build the economy of the country.

In what areas do you think government can help to boost the performance of your organization? For instance, would you like to be returned to seaports?

I would like SON to be returned to the ports in order to make it easy to track down substandard goods before they enter into our environment. The absence of our organisation at the ports means that we have been chasing sub-standard products after they might have found their ways into the markets in such a vast country like ours.

The presence of the agency at the ports will help to nip this problem in the bud as the products would be apprehended and stopped before they find their way into the nation’s markets. By so doing, our job is made much easier and more efficient and there would be no need for SON to chasing goods across every market in Nigeria because this is very cumbersome. Therefore, a return to the ports will be a plus for the SON, Nigeria and Nigerians. Again, as I said earlier, government should stipulate stiff sanctions to those that import or plan to port sub-standard goods and also for those who produce or plan to produce such in Nigeria.

Why does SON engage Journalists in capacity building workshops?

Our organisation uses the workshops to interact and discuss issues that bother the media, and the agency, operators, and indeed all stakeholders including the general public. In fact, I am delighted to engage the media as worthy collaborators in the Nigeria project.

I understand that pressmen have over the years been of tremendous support in telling the SON story and educating readers, viewers and listeners on our activities and challenges as they concern the safety of Nigerians and growth of the economy.

We appreciate the media and require robust collaborations as partners in progress and compatriots.