SON says No One Track Importers of Substandard Products in Nigeria

Farouk Salim, the Director-General of the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), has revealed that in Nigeria, no one is tracking importers of substandard goods.

Salim made this disclosure in Lagos during a stakeholders’ sensitisation forum, themed, “Standards save lives, grow the economy”.

DG SON explained that the essence of the sensitisation with stakeholders was to communicate and share views on how to make businesses more efficient.

He attributed the high rate of insecurity in the country to the importation of substandard goods.

In his words: “In other climes, when you buy a substandard product, the seller will be arrested and may be jailed, but it is not the same here. No one tracks the importer. Some people do not have the knowledge of substandard products and sometimes they don’t border to know.”

In his presentation, Kayode Farinto, the National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, declared that if the country must win the war against the importation of sub-standard goods in the country, there was a need to return SON back to the seaports.

Farinto stated that SON had vacated the seaports about few years ago with the intention of allowing the agency plays the role of the regulator outside the ports.

The National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents stated that “Increase in the imports of sub-standard goods and the effort of some nonconformist have showed that there is a need to reverse the executive decision if the nation must win the war against importation of sub-standard goods in the country.

“If this trend is not arrested urgently by providing solution, then it may affect the economy and dwindle the nation’s income drastically.”

He lamented that the absence of SON as a regulatory agency in the ports encouraged the importation and smuggling of sub-standard products.