Business Briefs
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THE Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, has endorsed Coleman Technical Industries Limited, CTIL, to produce high quality voltage cables in the country. Joseph Odumodu, director general, SON, said the endorsement is coming on the heels of the agency’s commitment to drive industrialisation in the nation through standardisation.
Odumodu during a courtesy visit to CTIL, added that the investment also indicates the confidence of the company in the nation’s economy, and pledged the agency’s unflinching support to provide the level playing field for the investment to thrive. “These young men have invested very heavily in this sector. If we are not using standardisation to promote investment, they will not have the confidence to invest over N10 billion in this facility. This investment is a confirmation of their belief in this economy because they see a future in the cable industry in Nigeria,” he said.
The SON boss commended the company’s strong commitment in manufacturing products that meets the minimum requirement of the Nigerian Industrial Standards, NIS, in the country. According to him, standardisation has brought over N20 billion investments into the industry and said the SON will continue to use standardisation to promote investment in the nation. “We have done so successfully on cement, ceramics, iron and steel industries. My verdict is that this is the way to go. I want to say that SON will support this initiative to the end of the earth. We must hold hands with Coleman Technical Industries Limited to ensure that this investment thrives.
“We will work with them to ensure that no substandard cables come into the market and also remove the substandard cables in the market to create opportunities for this specialised industry to be successful in this market. We are also working on a new national quality infrastructure to build a new infrastructure to make made-in-Nigeria products more appealing to the world. I am looking forward to the day I will come and certify the first export of your products even if it is to Ghana. It is something that is possible and achievable.”
Odumodu pointed out that Nigeria has a total need for cables in the housing sector but stressed that the nation is yet to meet the demand for cable. “We are currently working with the cable manufacturers of Nigeria, but a lot more needs to be done. Coleman’s investment is a mark of confidence in the economy and all we can do as government is to make sure that the investments succeed. We must also through our standardisation effort begin to make a transition. We must go the way the world is going. We cannot afford to be isolated from the rest of the world. So, if the world has already moved, we must move fast enough to catch up with the rest of the world,” he said.
Responding, George Onofowokan, managing director, CTIL, assured the SON boss of meeting up with the minimum requirements of the NIS by striving hard in manufacturing higher standard cables in the country and for export. “We are also looking towards our first export of our cables in a very short time. We believe this will be the beginning of a lot of export for Nigerian cables outside the economy. We have always worked on standardisation of our cables and also worked with SON on the NIS and we will continue to adopt these standards. We have been in partnership with SON for over 12 years where our cables are re-certified every year for over those 12 years,” he said.
According to Onofowokan, the certification process with SON is not a small feat and expressed the company’s commitment to get re-certified every year. “We have spent a lot of resources and time in setting up a laboratory in our company making sure that the laboratory is up to the standard and even higher than the standards of what is required. For standards, it is very important because we are Nigerians we have to change the way people think about our products internationally. So we have to strive more than what others are doing to achieve our desired goals.”
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New Rules for Aviation Agencies
THE aviation agencies in Nigeria are to contribute 25 percent of their revenues to the government. Osita Chidoka, minister of aviation, who gave the directive, said this was to ensure that the parastatals did not squander their earnings which had received a boost since more airlines have started operating in the country.
He said the compulsory contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, is in line with the nation’s fiscal policy act. Chidoka, who made this known in a press briefing in Lagos, on Tuesday, December 2, said all the agencies revenue sources would be critically reviewed and all loopholes blocked. He frowned on the current trend where the agencies consume all their internally generated revenue with nothing left to remit to the federal coffers, adding that at present, the contribution of the agencies is about four per cent.
The minister said he had established two committees; one was to review the crashes that had taken place in the country and look at the recommendations with a view to implement them. The second committee was to review all charges levelled on the airlines in order to bring them to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, accepted standard and make them profitable to the agencies as well as achieve the commercial purpose for which they were set up.
The minister said he was fully in support of the Nigeria Customs Service, NSC, which two weeks ago closed the bonded warehouses at the cargo terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. He said the clearing agents defied constituted authority which is at variance with operational standards in the industry, adding that the closure would continue until the clearing agents learn to respect constituted authorities and obey existing rules at the airport.
The parastatals include the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, and the Nigerian Metrological Agency, NIMET.
— Dec. 15, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
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