Ojomo: SON Providing Infrastructure for Certification of MSMEs  

Dike Onwuamaeze

The Acting Regional Director of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Lagos Region, Mrs. Theresa Ojomo, has stated that the agency is providing infrastructures that would enable operators of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Nano businesses to standardise their products and receive MANCAP and SONCSP certifications.

Ojomo stated this last week during the region’s road walk in commemoration of the 2024 World Standards Day (WSD), which was meant to create awareness and to sensitise the general populace on standards and quality.

She said: “The theme of this year’s World Standards Day is ‘Our Shared Vision for a Better World. So, we are looking at innovation, infrastructure, etc. in this age of Artificial Intelligence.

“The SON’s role in helping to achieve the ‘SDG 9’ is focused on infrastructure, innovation and bringing in all the MSMEs and the Nano organisations to ensure that they have the infrastructure to enjoy our products such as MANCAP and SONCAP. We broke it down for very small and micro organisations and encouraging them to imbibe standards and operate even in a unit activity.

“We have brought in schemes that are very low in economy because the MSMEs have always complained that it is expensive to achieve conformity required for standardisation through rigorous steps such as application forms, test, quality assurance etc.”

The acting regional director pointed out that SON only visit the micro and Nano operators once in a year, which is not cumbersome for them.

“We also want to see that the process of certification is not expensive for them, hence, we move them to the MANCAP scheme, which the SON is assuring even as small as the unit is,” she added.