Our Reporter
The issue of job and wealth creation came into focus at the commemoration of this year’s World Standards Day (or International Standards Day) held last Friday, October 14 under the theme ‘Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs): A precursor for growth.’
Speaking at the event in Lagos, the director general, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr. Farouk Salim, who joined the other 159 member nations to mark the day, said there was the need for Nigerians across the spectrum to intensify efforts in creating more employment opportunities and wealth in the country.
He disclosed that the 2022 edition of the celebration was coordinated by members of the International Electro-technical Commission (I.E.C.), the International Telecommunication Union (I.T.U.), and the International Standards Organisation (I.S.O.).
“The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which seek to address social imbalance, develop a sustainable economy and slow the rate of climate change can only be attained through the corporation of many public and private partners and the use of all available tools including standards and conformity assessment,” he said.
Salim said job and wealth advancements are the keys to unlocking the three major functions of SDGs viz. the need to end poverty, create prosperity and protect the climate.
He explained that jobs and wealth are created through private initiatives since, according to him, governments are overburdened with many challenges.
“It is a good idea for Nigerians and the country in particular if more jobs and wealth are created by the citizens. Life itself is complimentary. We must strive to compliment one other through provision of amenities needed for the survival of our countries,” Salim said.
He further said citizens’ efforts to create jobs and wealth are important for SON agency and the economy in particular.
Salim said the standards agency is saddled with huge responsibilities of encouraging operators to provide standards for their products, as well as ensuring they have International Standards Organisation (ISO) certificates to gain recognition abroad.
He said the country’s strive to achieve the provisions of SDGs is realisable if all Nigerians are supporting government’s efforts to make the economy great and formidable.
In the event of that, he said SON would be able to upscale its operations by providing more certifications and standardisations for products in the country.
To grow the economy, Salim said SON, for its part, had put in place programmes for capacity building for micro small and medium enterprises (MSME’s.
“Recently we commissioned the Kano Regional training Facility to provide training services for our stakeholders in Nigeria’s northwest by availing them of trainings in the ISO quality management systems series and Halal, to enable a lot of business get certified in Halal standards for Nigeria to partake in the billion dollar market,” he said.
Salim also said standardisation is vital to economic development, stressing that Nigeria’s economy would become a force to reckon with globally.
Moved by the need to encourage unprecedented growth in the nation’s economy, SON has introduced different levels of specifications for products in order to align with international best practices and further create appeals for them, as against a situation in which Nigerian goods were rejected in the global market.
Not only that, the agency, established in 1971 has provided many certifications and standards for hundreds of products in Nigeria.
SON has been asking Nigerians to submit more products for necessary actions, as evident by its campaigns, which dwell mostly on calling on companies to try and obtain standards for their products, with a view to unlocking economic growth.
The development, which is in tandem with the objectives of SON to prepare and promote national/regional and international standards for products, has again buttressed the fact that the agency is ready to bring necessary growth to bear on the economy.
Interestingly, the efforts have paid off as SON as the number of products certified upped by over than 2000 some years ago.
The feat was achieved as the agency approved standards for publication and dissemination to other sectors of the economy during the period.
Industry observers express the view that such achievement would translate into growth in the operation of the companies, whose products got the SON certification.
The observers who are mostly drawn from the financial services industry, said turnovers, profits after tax, fixed and non-fixed assets of the firms concerned in the matter are going to experience appreciable growths.
Prior to now, the parastatal provided over 2000 certifications, a development, which many stakeholders say describe as “good” for the economy.
Still on standards, Salim said the parastatal is committed to help the nation’s economy grow into enviable heights, by bringing more institute on board to obtain standards for their products.
The federal government, Salim said, is committed to developing the economy greatly, as evidenced by the policies introduced and implemented by various stakeholders in the economic value chain.
The agency, he said, appreciated the roles played by workers in impacting positively on the economy, noting that SON had concluded plans to improve its workforce in order to strengthen its operations and the economy in particular.
“The development informed the decision to conduct training programmes for workers across the country. The week-long exercise draws workers from areas such as south-south, south east, southwest and northern parts of the country.
“The workers were trained on how to abide with the agency’s ethical standards in the course of carrying out their official duties in SON.
When companies in need of standards see our officials as men and women of integrity, coupled with their pragmatism and patriotism, they will one day show interest in obtaining standards for their products. When this happens, those firms and the economy would benefit either in the short or long term,” he said.
Salim listed other measures, which SON adopts to deepen its activities in the economy.
These, according to him, include increasing standards in the real sector of the economy, bringing stakeholders in the sub-sector together, explaining the benefits inherent in obtaining standards to them, and assuring them of the benefits in using highly tested materials for building construction.
He said the agency has a laboratory in Ogba, Lagos for testing of all quality materials required for sandcrete blocks, stressing that there are other avenues for testing the quality of building materials.
Salim said that stakeholders, especially building contractors are going to deepen their participation in the building arm of the real sub sector, knowingly fully well that their jobs are secured through SON-operated laboratories.
He said more jobs are going to be created in the real sector and by so doing, youths would be employed.
He reiterated the plans of the agency to combat influx of sub-standards products and in return explore opportunities in the local economy.
Aside the current partnership between SON and the Nigeria Customs Service ( NCS) initiated to fight smuggling of products into the country, the standard agency would leverage on Mandatory Conformity Programme (MANCAP) to fight incidence of illegal and inferior goods in the country.
“MANCAP is a compulsory product specification scheme put in place by SON to ensure that all locally manufactured products in the country conform to the relevant Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) specification before such products are presented for sales and exports.
SON, Salim said, “is committed to providing standards to importers of goods” adding that the development would help in tackling cases of sub-standards products in Nigeria.
