FG Urged to Equip SON with More Labs to Boost Export

Oluchi Chibuzor

Stakeholders in the manufacturing sector have called on federal government to empower Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to establish more testing laboratories across the country to raise the standard of Made in Nigeria products.

The stakeholders’ made the call during the recent flag-off of SON’s free nationwide Caliberation Service for Manufacturers and Micro, Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Kano.

The captains of industry, who spoke during the flag-off held at Gerawa Rice Milling Company, said that more labs for SON would boost industrialisation and export of Made in Nigeria products.

According to the stakeholders, the SIN labs in Lagos, Kano, Enugu and Kaduna are not enough give adequate support to the sector.

Speaking, Group Managing Director, Gerawa Rice Milling Company, Alhaji Isa Gerawa, said that setting up more SON laboratories across the country would increase easy access to testing of products to grow the nation’s economy

According to him, SON needs more labs to enable it test a greater percentage of Nigerian products in order to have a niche on the shelves both locally and internationally.

The Director General of the SON, Mallam Farouk Salim said the essence of the exercise is to ensure that manufacturers and MSMEs have easy access  weight and measures to boost their productivity.

According to him, the SON has procured modern equipment worth huge amounts of money to commence the exercise and that the system is mobile in order to get all industries calibrated at their door steps, to prevent losses and also to ensure that consumers are not cheated on the other side

In his remark, Kano state Regional Director of SON, Mr. Albert Wilberforce, said the exercise was kick-started to boost the morale of indigenous companies to achieve greater heights.