The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has called for strong alliance with stakeholders to combat substandard goods across the country.
Noting that growing the economy depends on ability to export, he said, “SON is also playing in that field. Through the SONEXCAP, products that will leave this country to other countries with the SONEXCAP certification, those products can be accepted in most of the countries especially in Africa because of the African free trade area agreement.”
The director general, SON, Ifeanyi Okeke made the call while addressing the media during the 2025 edition of the World Standards Day.
Speaking on the themed: ‘Shared vision for a better world, spotlight on the Sustainable Development Goal 17,’ Okeke noted that, the event is not only to commemorate the global significance of standards, but also to demonstrate collective commitment through the work of standards, a symbolic expression of unity and shared vision for national and global development.
According to him, the theme is both timely and also compelling, noting that it reinforces the fact that sustainable development cannot be achieved by any single institution.
“Collaboration, cooperation, partnership are true drivers of progress and standards are the common language that makes such partnership possible.
“For Nigeria, this theme speaks to the realities of our development journey. Our goals, from food security to industrialization, from energy transition to trade expansion, require cooperation between the government, the private sector, academia and civil society,” he noted.
Moreover he said, “By spotlighting this Sustainable Development Goal 17, we affirm that partnerships are not simply supportive, but are the very backbone for achieving other Sustainable Development Goals.”
Okeke said, national quality infrastructure is the underpinning, that determines Nigeria’s level of development, in terms of its ability to ensure that imported and exported products meet the required standards, either national, regional and global standards.
“We cannot do conformity assessments alone. We need the collaboration, we need the partnership, we need the cooperation. In this regard, for imported products, we need to have our internationally accredited experts, because SOM cannot be found everywhere in the world.
“We need to have organizations that have been accredited and recognized globally to be able to help us test and certify our products. So we need that support, we need that collaboration internationally for imported products,” he added.
Furthermore, he said, SON needs the joint efforts of everyone to boost export of locally produced goods, adding that , ‘We have the SONEXCAP which is our certification programme for exports. Nigeria cannot just continue dwelling on imports.’
