The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has urged importers of substandard goods to desist from wasting huge sums of money on importation of goods that have no consumer utility.
SON also said that such fake goods would end up being destroyed if intercepted, pointing out that the agency would stop at nothing to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.
Director-General, SON, Osita Aboloma, represented by the Director, Compliance, SON, Mr Obiora Mmanfa, gave the charge at a destruction site in Lagos on Sunday.
โPlease stop wasting your money importing substandard goods, we cannot afford to compromise on quality because the lives and property of Nigerians are paramount and our primary responsibility is to protect Nigerians from these goods that are injurious to families and the nation at large.
โWe are here to destroy some substandard products we intercepted at the ports, borders and highway, we tested them and found out that they failed the basic parameters for standard products and some of the products have expired.
โWe do not want these products to find their way into the markets, because they are harmful to human lives,โ aboloma said.
He listed the products that were conveyed to the dumpsite as electric cable, cylinders, expired cigarette packaging materials, tyres, electric bulbs, motorcycle tubes, extension sockets and unfortified sugar.
According to him, about N22.7 billion worth of substandard goods have been destroyed so far this year, stating that the agency will intensify efforts to tighten the noose where most of the substandard goods find their way into the shores of the country.
โWe have been destroying over time and for this year alone we have about N22.7 billion worth of products where some have been destroyed while some are awaiting destruction.
โWe have thousands of electric cables, stuffed tyres and cylinders in our warehouse waiting for further investigation and analysis,โ he said.
He said that SON could not be happy destroying the goods because the action brought nothing but drain on the national economy and hard-earned foreign exchange, maintaining that SON remained a business facilitator established to help genuine businesses to grow.
โOur message to the importers is that we are not happy destroying these goods because it is a drain to the national economy and our hard-earned foreign exchange.
โImporters pay foreign exchange to import these products and when they bring them in, we seize and destroy them. This is not good for anybody.
โWe are appealing to them to do the right thing. Comply with our standards because we will not allow people who cut corners to cheat unsuspecting consumers in the country.
โWe have our standards in all our state offices across the country, feel free to come in anytime to obtain these standards before importing goods into the country.
โWe have many items to be destroyed here and more are coming. Once we conclude the investigation going through these products in our laboratory to check for conformity and they fail, we will bring them down here and destroy.
โThis is a continuous process and we will not stop till we achieve our mandate of safeguarding the lives and property of Nigerians,โ he said.
