Standard Organisation of Nigeria SON, has withdrawn all the NIS certificates awarded to manufacturing companies in Nigeria with immediate effect for gross abuse of the certificate.
The Director General of SON, Joseph Odumodu who announced this at the SON day at the ongoing Enugu International Trade Fair also said they have suspended factory inspection because they was need to review and redefine the process to make it more result oriented.
The DG lamented that SON was forced to withdraw all the certificates because of their findings in recent times about the discrepancy in the products inspected at the factory and those shifted to the consumer market and decided that the best thing to do was to withdraw the NIS certificates.
His words “If you pick a product that has NIS, it pre-surposes that that product has been awarded a mark of excellence by the standard body of Nigeria. If you now found out that the product does not meet the specifications of the relevant standard,it will create a disappointment in the mind of the consumers”.
Odumodu, explained that Nigeria has food fortification programme which presses on manufacturers to fortify certain food with either certain protein or vitamins saying that if somebody picks one of those products in the market and it does not have the right percentage of that vitamin, while such product was having an NIS does not speak good of the organisation and the nation.
He said “ that has been our findings in recent times and that is why we have decided that the best thing to do is to withdraw the NIS and put in place a more structured to identifying and awarding the quality mark”.
The DG said that what SON was trying to do in the new system was to create a period when product will be monitored not just at the factory because some of the manufacturers when you announce your comming they would do the right thing but do other things when you go.
“When you are at the gate and say you are comming they will fortify and so when you take sample and test it will pass but you go to the market and test the same product it would no longer have the same quality of the one you passed these are the areas we are going to address so we will test not just in the factory we will test at the market. Because ultimately it is what the consumer takes is more important it not what people are doing inside their Laboratories”. he said.
The Director general stated that hence forth the result gotten from the test conducted from the products at the market would form their decisions in confirming standard and quality of any product.
“The most important test is the test of those samples that we are going to get from the market.
This explained why in recent times we have also suspended factory inspection because we need to review and refine the process and make it more result oriented”. He however assured Nigerians that as a standard body they will continue to challenge themselves improve and improve till the consumer get the perfection he or she deserve.
Regis Anukwuoji
