… Harps on the need to add value to products
Paschal Emeka, Abuja | Posted October 27, 2023
The Niger state Coordinator of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Mrs Mariam Samson has enjoined producers and consumers to strictly adhere to the agency’s instructions and specifications on products.
She said that their adherence to SON’s instruction would be of immense profit to all.
The Coordinator, who addressed some Journalists in her base in Suleja, Niger state, spoke on her team’s preparedness towards realising the Director General’s (DG) planned policy on industrialisation.
She enthused: “You know that Niger state have a lot of cottage industries, and we won’t stop Nigerinas from exporting their produce, but we also want to ensure that production goes on here and whatever that is produced have more value rather than just packaging the raw materials or agricultural produce out of the country or even selling them. If you want to add more value to whatever it is, at least, when you now get the finished product, if you add more value to it, you make more money.
“At the end of the day, most farmers cart away their produce, by either selling them to the middle men or taking them to the markets and sell them raw. When you finish, you should try to add more value to your products. For instance, you have corn and produce corn flour from that, it will get more value, than just packaging everything. It is then the duty of SON to ensure that whatever is produced is of good quality, so that it doesn’t harm anybody that takes the product. We have to ensure that quality is met. Even right from the start, that is why it is important for SON to be everywhere and that is why the SON is in Niger II, to cater for the industries and the consumers within Suleja and the other eight local government areas of Niger state.”
On their efforts to ensure standardisation, the state coordinator informed that they have been training producers, even as she cited Shea Butter product as an example, which she said was an initiative of the government, informing producers that they can exported it.
She warned against exporting products that are not properly packaged, saying that they will not be accepted.
“Whatever you are producing, if they aren’t properly packaged and tested and you send them outside the country, of course nobody will patronize you and you will end up having your products rejected and that is why most of such produce from Nigeria are being rejected in Europe and other countries, because they don’t follow the right direction to get their products certified.
“We do a lot of trainings, including the SMAs, so as to ensure that whatever they produce meet standards. We don’t stop at that, we also sensitize the manufacturers and the consumers. Whatever you produce, the key is that, you must meet the parameter, which is the standard. If you are producing anything, you must have parameter. Whatever, the product must meet the standard.You can’t just go and produce anything contrary to the standards. So we are engaging a lot of manufacturers and market associations through their leaders, to ensure that they imbibe the culture of standard in whatever they are producing,” she stated.
White urging producers to always come to SON, so as to get enlightened and know how to go about their production, she faulted the way some of them package their products and send them abroad and disregard SON’s laid down procedures.
She said that manufacturers must ensure that the product meets the climate of that country. The Coordinator however informed that they are embarking on awareness creation to educate manufacturers, adding that everything produced in Nigeria falls under SON’s Mandatory Conformity Assessment Program (MANCAP).
Attributing circulation of substandard products in markets to activities of some unscrupulous people, saying that it was until last year that SON was granted access to various ports.
“Imagine how many years we had no access to the port,” she said.
According to her, SON don’t have the manpower to face about 250 million Nigerians.
While advising consumers to stop buying cheap products, because of the harsh economy and cheapness of the substandard products, she noted that if you keep buying a substandard products, you will not only loose value of your money, but also your time.
She however enjoined the producers to go for quality products, which if done, according to her will attract the attention of the consumers