Importers of Sub-standard Products’ To Be Jailed-SON

The Director-General of the regulator of consumer goods markets, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Joseph Odumodu, has revealed that importers of sub-standard products into the country will henceforth be sent to jail.
Odumodu said this yesterday in Lagos at the donation of gifts to SON by Intertek Limited, to mark the 10th year anniversary of SON Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP).

According to him, federal government has empowered SON by law to prosecute and jail importers of substandard goods to serve as deterrent to others in the illicit business.
Odumodu said the new SON Act of 2015, which gave them the power to prosecute offenders can be effective if importers of harmful sub-standard products are being prosecuted and jailed for sabotaging the economy of the country.
He also said that the SON Act also gives them the power to force importers and manufacturers to create a database of every products in the market, which would be helped by the Electronic Products Registration (EPR) that has been embarked upon by the agency, saying “it is not enough to say we have destroyed goods worth billions of Naira, we also wants to know who brought them into the country hence we are keeping a database.”
He said by 2016, inferior goods would have fallen under 15 per cent as the organisation is doing a lot to nip it in the bud, with the active collaboration of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

On the equipment donated to SON, he said the Flammability Chamber tester, Haver Airflow Tester and the High Performance liquid Chromatography (HPLC) donated by Intertek, worth millions of naira, will go a long way in the agency’s fight against sub-standard products entering the country.
The managing director and chief executive of Intertek Limited, Mr Victor Faleye, said the donation is to show support to SON and congratulate them on the impact of SONCAP in its tenth year of operation.

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