The Standards Organisation of Nigeria on
Monday said there was a need to put in place a law that would prohibit
the exportation of products not duly certified by the appropriate
authorities.
The Director-General, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, stated this while speaking on the sidelines of the launch of ‘Operation Flush’
Operation Flush is a local initiative of SON in partnership with the civil society to rid the country of substandard products. The European Union had put a ban on the
exportation of some Nigerian agricultural products up until June next
year due to noncompliance with standards.
The products are beans, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish and meat, peanut chips and palm oil.
But the SON DG, while speaking on the
ban, said the best way to address the situation was to discourage the
exportation of products not certified by the relevant agencies.
He said currently, there was no law in
Nigeria mandating exporters to get certification from SON before
shipping their products abroad. He said, “None of the products that were shipped out of the country had gone through any process of certification.
“As of today, there is no law that mandates an exporter to get a certification from SON before they ship their products abroad.
“Now, we need to get back to our
permanent secretary and other people to ensure that there is a template
to guarantee that. The only thing government should do is to disallow
exportation of products that are not certified. Once that is done, when
you see any importer that contravenes that, you deal with him.”
On the significance of the launch of the
Operation Flush, Odumodu said that it was an initiative aimed at cutting
down on the level of substandard products from the present level of 40
per cent to 10 per cent.
He explained that the initiative to be
done in partnership with the CSOs was aimed at expanding the scope of
war against substandard products by involving both the retailers and the
wholesalers.
http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/son-seeks-law-against-exportation-of-uncertified-products/
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