By Franklin Alli

LAST week Wednesday, the Oramiyan Hall of the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, was filled to the brim. The occasion was the launch of electronic product registration,  (e-product) by Standards Organisation of Nigeria. The launch of the technology was a success as more than 250 manufacturing firms including importers from different sectors of the economy, immediately endorsed the database.

Before now, registration of product was carried out manually by the organisation. During this period, a lot of challenges were met, thus making the process cumbersome and inefficient. To address these challenges, the management of the organisation introduced the e-product scheme.

“After 20th February, 2013, no more manual filling; our staff will help you to get registered. Just come with all relevant documents, “Dr. Joseph Odumodu, SON Director General, told participants.

Odumodu told the gathering that the introduction of the e- product platform was necessitated by the fact that there are only 1,500 people in SON.

“We can’t chase around every product in Nigeria but with the e- product system, we need to know what product is out there in the market. And the only way to know what’s out there in the market is to create a database for it. With the e-products system, I’ll be able to know which product is out there in the market, am able to know who brought the product to Nigeria.

A cross section of participants who spoke to Vanguard, were excited about the scheme. Here are some comments they made:

Chibueze Ibeneweta, Chairman, Electronic Dealers Association, Mushin, Lagos:  “The intention of government to introduce e-products registration is a good idea but the way they are going about it, I don’t think they are really prepare to successfully implement the exercise. I am of this view because “they could not provide enduring answers to most of the questions asked by stakeholders.

For instance, we are selling electronic parts like remote controls; if you come to my shop, we have about 300 types of remote controls, by the time you import these things from China, how do you register them? If the purpose of government is to standardise goods in Nigeria, they should register these products as brand instead of registering them one by one. Another point is the tenure for registration. One year is too short.  NAFDAC is giving five years and SON, is giving one year; before you complete the process, five months is gone.”

Representative of Ranona Ltd, Rosemary Okegbare also praised the initiative, saying: “It’s a welcome development. SON is making sure that the country is not a dumping ground for substandard products.  SON also wants to ensure that consumers enjoy quality products which everybody is clamouring for.”   She too was of the view that one year is just too short for the exercise.

“I know how it is when they started with MANCAP.  If a company has 20 products, do you think under one month they are registered, their certificate will be ready?  Telling us that under one month you will get it, I don’t think it is feasible; SON had better stretch the exercise to three or four years.  If they make it four years it‘ll benefit everybody.”