The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) on Wednesday decried the activities of smugglers of sub-standard roofing sheets, giving manufacturers up till January 2011 to comply with aluminum painted roofing sheets. Dr John Akanya, the Director General of SON, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He particularly pointed at Indian businessmen who brought into the country corrugated roofing sheets from neighbouring countries with “very low quality”.

“The smugglers and some nefarious Indian businessmen bring in corrugated roofing sheets into Nigeria with 0.15 millimetres, whereas we have reviewed the standard upward to 0.18mm. So, we have since started fighting them that they must insist on 0.18mm and we agreed for a grace period of two years after which we will start implementing the standard,” Akanya said.

He said that the objective was to ensure that the substandard roofing sheets were phased out, because they corrode very easily.

The director general said that the aluminum roofing sheets were better than the corrugated ones because they had longer life-span.

“So, what if we must deliberately replace the corrugated roofing sheets with aluminum ones, they must be affordable so that Nigerians of low income levels can afford them,” he said. Akanya said the aluminum roofing sheets though more expensive than corrugated ones could last for as long as 25 to 30 years without corroding.

“We have just started the aluminum paint-coated ones, which everybody is rushing for now. With this scientifically and technically colouring, it will beautify the system and also protect the material from rusting,” he said.  According to him, two factories are already manufacturing the aluminum coated roofing sheets, saying that they are test-running it. Akanya said: “Quality I believe is a journey that cannot be conquered in one day. So, we should not criticise the vision because we have a long way to go. In the last four years, we have worked on the roofing sector and people are just seeing these beautiful colours and nobody is asking questions. We worked with them. I went into the factory to specify the painting. How these roofing sheets should be coloured, how they should cleverly phased out the corrugated roofing sheets in the society.”