The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) plays a critical role in the scheme of things in the country and by extension, the critical role which standards and standardisation stand to play in the economic well-being of the nation.
Obviously, it is difficult to imagine life without standards. I say this because there is hardly any aspect of life where standards is not required or deployed. There is a requisite quality that has gone into the production of any reliable product we use either in the office or in our homes.
Any product, just think of any product: As I am speaking into this microphone now, I am doing so, elieving that it would pick signals from my voice, and modulate it audibly to the hearing of my audience.
We can only take it for granted that the microphone would deliver on this expectation if it had been produced following laid down quality specifications and standards; otherwise the result would be output failure and disappointment for all of us.
Also, in our offices, hotel rooms, we would expect that as we switch on the air conditioner or the television set, that it would promptly come on; and that as we pick the intercom and dial, that it would work, otherwise, we could be disappointed, in fact, frustrated.
The situation could be worse, like we have had in the cases of consumers suffering electric shocks from defective electrical appliances, or people buying and building with iron rods they felt were produced using the right specifications only to find out there were substandard and caving in under the structures they are supposed to support.
The confidence that things would work when we use them and for the purpose we procure them, is the work of standardisation. It is believed globally that one of the key objectives of standardization is to provide a level of confidence.
You can then imagine what the situation would be if there were no deliberate efforts, bodies and policies put in place to ensure that the requisite measures and standards are adhered to.
The founding of the SON
Nigeria formally joined the standardisation train in 1970, i.e,10 years after her independence. This was when the government established the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) as an integral part of the
Federal Ministry of Industries with a governing council to manage its affairs.
The organisation is still undergoing evolutions since then as is the case with every dynamic organisation, but there is also the national policy on standards, standards for the certification of products in commerce and industry throughout Nigeria.
The other vital functions are to provide the necessary measures for quality control of raw materials and products in conformity with the standard specification; determine and ensure the implementation of other functions imposed on it under the Act.
The agency has participated fully in the programmes and activities of international bodies like UNIDO and UNICEF, all in the interest of Nigeria.
Also, Nigeria is a member of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and uses a combination of ISO and IEC standards. SON, which implements some of these protocols on behalf of the Federal Government, is a member of many international institutes on standards and these include the African Regional Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), the British Standards Institute, the American
National Standard Institute, the German National Standards, the Japanese National Standards and the Korean Industrial Standards.
Others are the China National Standards, the Ghana Standards Board, the South African Bureau of Standards, the International Organization for Standardization, the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, the Codex Alumentarius,the Food and Agricultural Organization as well as the World Health Organization.
Non Adherence To Standardisation: Counting The Costs Hearing all these organisations and bodies mentioned, and to which Nigeria is a member, the question that would naturally come to mind is: does Nigeria adhere to standardisation specifications as is globally the case? Are goods on offer for sale in Nigeria meet requisite international specifications in line with standards?
You must have heard us say that if you went to a Nigerian market, especially some eight or 10 months before now, and randomly picked products, that four in five times, you would pick a substandard product. We have told the story of how Nigeria spends over N20 billion yearly importing substandard goods, majorly from the Asian region.
Thus, while it helps other economies in lifting off their shoulders products of low value and quality, it succeeds in killing local entrepreneurship and in fact in further jeopardizing the health status of its members, given that such low quality products come with severe health implications.
We have spoken about how about 80 percent of goods imported into the country for onward distribution and use are sub-standard and how about 90 percent of Life Danger Products, consisting of cables, extension cables, stabilisers and other electrical products were substandard.
Most of the products find their ways into the country through the ports in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Calabar while Abuja and Kano also have their share of imported products into the country. As a result of the renewed onslaught on importers of substandard products in Lagos and the losses incurred by the personalities behind such acts, we discovered that some importers had diverted their operations to Port Harcourt, Calabar, Sokoto and Katsina.
If much of these substandard products are motor vehicle parts, you can imagine how much of the accidents on our roads and indeed the loss of lives could be attributed to the patronage of substandard products.
If these are the situations that confront us, it becomes very clear then, what implication our non adherence to standards foists on our national development.
We have identified these to include, waste of hard earned resources, loss of revenue, closure of Nigerian industries, exacerbation of the unemployment situation, undue competition with foreign companies producing similar products as Nigerian firms and also loss of lives.
When we import and use substandard products from other countries, we are taking food off the mouth of Nigerians and helping to kill indigenous industries; we are in effect creating unemployment and fostering youth restiveness and other social vices.
It is one sure way of attracting aspersion from the international community. Some trader partners either totally boycott your products or take it with a pinch of salt. When we patronize substandard products, we pay more overall; We have demonstrated the fact that patronage of substandard products could lead to domestic and industrial accidents thereby costing lives.
So, if we were to ask, why is SON pushing for standardisation of products manufactured and sold in the country?
The truth is that it has many advantages, the number one reason being that it would make Nigerian products more attractive both locally and internationally.
It is understandable that if consumers perceive or discover a particular product to be of quality, they would patronise the product or service over and again, leading to increased turnover over time.
With this, the manufacturing company would be able to pay its staff well and also pay tax thereby contributing to economic development of the nation.
On the other hand, a country with the preponderance of substandard products would only be short-changing itself, as products originating there would be discriminated against in the international market. Even its citizens would be negatively perceived by nationals of other countries.
All the billions of naira which our country spends annually on substandard products could be piloted to other areas of need. In fact, with judicious use, it is enough to establish additional factories offering hundreds of thousands of jobs to Nigerians.
On the other hand, stigmatisation foisted on a nation as a result of the preponderance of substandard products, could lead to unquantifiable costs, and this we can no longer afford.
