The Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr Anthony Osita Abuloma has said that Nigerian products could compete favourably in the global market as far as such products are certified in line with international standards.
The SON boss said most Nigerian products, particularly agricultural products which, he said, are quite natural yields from the highly organic soil of the country, are acceptable abroad once they are certified in accordance with international standards.
The Director General spoke at a forum tagged “General Sensitization on: Mobile Calibration Equipment,” organized in Enugu by the SON in collaboration with Turaki Heritage Limited for manufacturers/industrialists and other stakeholders within the southeast zone.
“Our local products can compete favourably with all the products all over the world. The only thing is to build that quality infrastructure to it. I told you that at a point, Nigerian yams were rejected when they were exported. But the same Nigerian yams were taken to Ghana – when Nigeria didn’t have accredited labs, and later, the same Nigerian yams passed through Ghana’s calibration process, the yams were exported to Europe, and they started eating them because they had been certified ok after calibration,” said Abuloma, who was represented on the occasion by the Director, National Metrology Institute of SON, Engr. Obiora E. Manafa.
However, Abuloma enjoined all manufacturers in Nigeria, particularly those operating in the southeast zone to quickly embrace the mobile calibration services which enhance the international standards of locally made products.
He explained that without proper certification of locally made products in line with the international standards, it would be impossible for such products to be accepted or marketed abroad.
He said: “Any product you want to export must have a test report; without a test report, nobody will buy your products…To ensure that our products are of the same standard with international products, manufacturers must produce goods and services that are acceptable to international customers. You must produce something that is safe, not harmful to human health or environment…And you need to export your products; when you start exporting, you create jobs, make more money for the country. We need to look beyond the local market.”
He explained that calibration is a process in which SON compares readings of measuring instruments of industrialists against a reference standard, noting that one of the advantages of calibration was to ensure accuracy level of a measuring instrument.
He further explained that mobile calibration is a vehicle with in-built laboratory which can move from one location to another in order to offer calibration services within the premises of industrialists and manufacturers rather than the manufacturers coming to SON offices for calibration services.
“So, it’s either you come and do calibration in our laboratory at our offices or we use the mobile lab, go to your own company premises and do it in our own vehicle. So we can do the calibration in our mobile lab within your premises in remote areas,” he said.