SON shuts factory over substandard fan products

Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON

Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has clamped down on a company at Abule Oshun, Lagos, for manufacturing substandard fans.

SON Director of Compliance & Enforcement Mr. Bede Obayi, told The Nation that the agency acted based on surveillance. He said HangFair International Company Limited, which claimed to have imported the fans from China actually manufacture them in their warehouse without conformity to standard practice.

He said the company was involved in counterfeiting and faking, using a SON registration number given to another manufacturer who went through the agency’s standards procedures.

Obayi regretted that the genuine manufacturer is somewhere believing he has done something right by registering his product with SON, but unknown to him somebody in Abule Oshun was reaping his benefit.

The SON director said: “This man is doing nothing but simply reaping where he did not sow. We have the mandate to close the factory, which we have done and until his product goes through our mandatory assessment programme (MANCAP), we will ensure he does not go back to his illicit business, we insist that the procedure is right.”

Obayi accused the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Uchenna Ugah, of depriving people the benefit of enjoying the cash they spend on his products.

He further accused him of using ISO 9002, which SON has discontinued since 1987, stressing that it shows the ignorance of the manufacturer on the need to adhere to quality standards.

Obayi said SON insists that manufacturers do the right thing, especially as the Federal Government is diversifying the economy and encouraging Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME).

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