SON Seeks Stiffer
Penalty For Fake Goods Importers
The
Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON has suggested to the
National Assembly to legislate stiffer penalties for importers
of substandard products.
The Director General of SON, Dr. John Akanya, in an interview
with the News Agency of Nigeria, blamed traders and marketers
for demanding for low quality products to make more gains at the
expense of the economy and the lives of the people.
’’If the National Assembly can make laws that give appropriate
punishment to defaulters, we can begin to get good results,’’ he
said.
Proffered Solutions
According to him, the marketers usually create the market
for inferior products while the consumers encourage it by their
preference for cheap imported products.
Akanya said the only solution to ensuring standard was for more
Nigerian companies to manufacture locally.
’’That way we can control and monitor the factories effectively
and even close down the defaulting ones as we are doing
presently.’’
Akanya cited the recent closure of an aluminium roofing sheet
manufacturing company for producing inferior roofing sheets.
He said that in Year 2010, the organisation would increase
awareness on the use of quality roofing and corrugated sheets.
’’We will also increase our surveillance and monitoring of other
aluminium products to ensure that standards are adhered to,’’ he
said.
NAN/Yinka
