By Jimoh Babatunde & Naomi Uzor

The era of Nigeria’s agro allied products being rejected in international markets are now coming to an end as the country is set to go places in terms of export promotion and high investment portfolio.

Cassava farm

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, made this statement as he officially launch the two recently internationally accredited Chemical and Food Technology Laboratories of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), in Lagos on Tuesday.

The nation’s key regulator of standards and quality, SON, scored an encore in 2014 following the International Laboratory Accreditation Corporation (ILAC)’s unprecedented testing and accreditation and certification.

Dr. Aganga said with the laboratories in place that the country will no longer export blindly as things have changed, “we can now analyse, test and standardize our exports in line with international standards.”

He added “The benefits of having our own laboratory are enormous. Food produce from Nigeria will now be tested at the Laboratory before export instead of by the importing country at their convenience. The rate of exports will receive a massive boost with local produce being tested locally and sent abroad without any barrier, having been internationally certified through an accredited laboratory in Nigeria”

The minister said with the fall in oil price that the country can not continue to rely on one product for its foreign earning, “ Nigeria’s local products will now enjoy high patronage at the global market, following the accreditation of SON’s Food laboratories.

“ We are all making history here . It is the first time our laboratories will be accredited in Nigeria simultaneously. The advantages are dual in the sense that whatever is not good for export is also not good for local consumption.

“Agricultural products like cocoa, shea butter , cashew, sesame and processed agricultural products will begin to enjoy international accreditation and certification by SON. This invariably means that such local produce can be exported worldwide without any restriction by the importing countries.”

Dr. Aganga said Nigeria products will be more competitive in international markets as exporter will no longer deal with discounted fees for their cocoa, cashew and other cash products by the international community anymore.

In his welcome address, at the official launching of the laboratories with the theme: SON Food Laboratory, Delivering Nigerian Products to the World, the director-general of the agency, Joseph Odumodu, said the two laboratories – chemical testing and quality management laboratories – accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation would restore confidence in the market place for Nigeria’s food export commodities as they would have scaled the hurdles of acceptable standards for export products.

Odumodu, who said the feat was achieved without external consultants but by the dedicated staff of the agency, said the laboratories were the only ones in the country at the moment.

Commenting on the cost of accessing the services of the laboratories, Odumodu said that government agencies involved in exports would access the services of the labs at no cost as part of government’s policy, while private sector people would have to pay a token.

He observed that current exporters in the country pay as much as 10 per cent of the total value of their exports, adding that when they bring their commodities to the SON’s laboratory, they would pay less than one per cent of the total value of their exports.