SON pleads to return to ports

Mr Paul Angya, the Acting Director-General, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to reinstate the organisation back to ports to stop imported substandard goods.
He made the plea during a Maritime Stakeholders Awareness Forum, held in Lagos.
It will be recalled that a former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala in Oct. 2011, sent out eight of 16 agencies operating at the ports, including SON.
According to him, the obligation of SON was to facilitate trade, adding that the presence of SON's officials at ports would go a long way in stopping the havoc and loss which substandard goods had done to the economy.
``If we are put in a strategic position, we will be able to tackle the problem of substandard goods entering into the country, ‘’Angya said.
He said that the Standard Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) certificate was issued for processing Form `M’ and Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR).
The SON DG said that the hard copy of certificate of SONCAP was being abused by stakeholders within the trade circle to the detriment of the Nigerian economy.
Angya said that SON had used Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance the security of the SONCAP process (Certificates) by issuing E-Certificates
He said the certificates would be integrated to the National Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS) to process Form `M’ and PAAR.
``SON also introduced Electronic Provisional Clearance Certificate (EPCC) in line with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) requirements to ensure that trade concerns processed before the new process does not suffer any consequences or delay.
``The EPCC was opened for 90 days effective from Sept. 10 to Dec. 9, 2015. Unfortunately, this has resulted into massive importation of substandard goods into the Nigerian market.
``More than 60 per cent of imports are by-passing the regulation process using the EPCC and other gimmicks,’’ the acting director-general said.
He said that SON would re-open the EPCC and stop it in July, adding that importers used this platform in bringing substandard goods into the country.
He called on importers of oil and gas and special products to follow the organisation’s SONCAP import permit for exempting their goods from offshore certification.
 SONCAP programme was put in place in 2005 to regularise the standard of importation of goods both in and outside the county.

In his words all products imported into the country were regulated, except some products such as: food products, drugs, medical equipment, chemicals, cosmetics, military hard wares, equipment and goods that were classified as contraband by government.
``We cannot continue permanently with the EPCC regime, the EPCC needs to be stopped at a point.
``All stakeholders involved in the importation of SON regulated products should go back to certifying their products offshore before bringing them in.
``The SONCAP certification of your product before imports has advantage for your business and national economy at large.
``You are assured of the quality of the goods you are importing and you will also give the consumers of your goods value for their money,’’ he said.
The DG, however, said that ``any importer who imports without SONCAP certification by July would be charged a fine of 20 per cent of the value of goods and such goods would be subjected to test’’.
He said that if the goods had been cleared by the importer, SON would go after such goods and destroy the goods and asked the importer to pay for the destruction.
#Alabingo with agency reports