The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has introduced fresh standards to combat the high level of rejection faced by Nigeria’s agricultural commodities at the global markets.
The Director General, SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, stated that most of the times when Nigerian goods are rejected, it is due to failing to go through standard procedure locally before exporting to other countries, saying that as long as exporters continue to ignore local available standards, their products would continue to be rejected.
“If the exporters come through us and they follow the standards of our country and they follow the standards of the country they are exporting to, then they should not have a problem,” he assured.
He added that the standards that were approved were painstakingly developed through stakeholders’ input and consideration, pointing out that the move was an indication that standards body is working very hard to ensure that products in this country are not only up to standards, but produced for export.
The SON boss added “Some of the standards approved have to do with hair and now that people in that line of business now knows that there is a standard for that kind of product in the market. We have standards for food and feed. Any one who is planning to go into fish farming can always come to us to get this standard to start their fish farming business. The reason why we develop standards is that when we are shipping products from Nigeria to other country, you have a stamp on it and for the person receiving this product would see the sign of quality on the products and also realise that the product is meeting the set standards.”
Rhe Chairman, SON Governing Council, Mrs. Evelyn Ngige, said a total of 37 new standards has been unveiled to boost Nigeria’s industrial development.
She explained that three out of the 37 new standards were reviewed; eight were newly developed while 26 have been adopted for the existing international standards.
According to her, the approved standards, which cut across various sectors of the Nigerian economy are in line with the approved Nigerian Industrial Standardisation Strategy which focuses on stakeholders and market demands for optimisation of available resources.
She noted that 10 of the standards are developed for chemical technology in particular for plastic piping products, thermoplast pipes, human and synthetic hair extension.
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