Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, the Federal Government agency which is saddled with the regulation of the quality of goods produced, imported and used in Nigeria, has said that about 80 per cent of goods imported into the country for onward distribution and use are sub-standard.

Director-General of SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, said this weekend at the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) excellence award ceremony, which held in Lagos.

Odumodu said that when he took over the reins of authority at the agency a few months ago, he was confronted with scary details of the peddling of fake and sub-standard goods in the country.

“When I took over at SON I found scary details, we have a programme called SONCAP for regulating the quality of goods imported into the country. But I discovered that importers would register and get SONCAP approval with good quality products but turn around and import poor quality products different from the ones they presented for certification,” he lamented.

He, however, stressd his determination and that of his staff at SON to turn the ugly trend around. He said SON is currently working on a free sale agreement, which will ensure that other countries will only bring the products that they consume into Nigeria as well as take full responsibility for the failure of the goods, which they have imported to meet minimum required standard.

He said highly-placed Nigerians involved in these shady deals mount enormous amounts of pressure on them with the aim of intimidating agents of SON and preventing them from carrying out their constitutional responsibilities.

He, however, stressed that no amount of threats from these highly placed fraudulent Nigerians will stop the agency from fulfilling its mandate.