By PROVIDENCE OBUH & JOY UNUANE

Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, weekend, intensified its call for quality and standard of made-in-Nigeria goods, revealing that the rate of substandard goods reduced to 40 percent in the last four years.

This was made known by the Director General, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, during a world press conference in Lagos.

Odumodu said that the state of the agency was nothing to write home about as it’s lack of capacity was huge; 85 percent of local products were substandard; promoters of substandard products were thriving in illicit trade, unwilling to voluntarily stop their harmful activities and pervasive ignorance of about the harmful effect of fake products on consumer health and on the national economy.

Meanwhile, the organization succeeded in: the launch of zero tolerance campaign to rid the market of fake and substandard goods; massive public enlightenment through media and stakeholders engagement to draw attention to the hazards of fake and substandard products; certification of SON to ISO 9000; inauguration of National Quality Policy Committee; new ultra modern, world class laboratory facility under construction, among others.

“If we allow substandard product to thrive in our country, we are saying the local industry should remain under standardized. So much has been done to stabilize the standard of made-in-Nigeria goods but we are not where we suppose to be as the rest of the world.

“Nigeria is the giant of Africa yet it rates low in standardization in Africa and nowhere in world ranking. All hands must be on deck to pull us out of the wood into the global standard tray’” he said.