Business Briefs
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THE Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, has said it is finalising arrangements to ensure that all imported products in the country would carry the Nigerian Industrial Standard, NIS, by 2015. The NIS would enable the agency to curb the menace of substandard goods flooding the nation’s markets and threatening local manufacturers.
Joseph Odumodu, director general, SON, said the move, being undertaken in collaboration with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, is to beam the floodlight on the imported products and ensure that they carry certification marks after due testing has been carried out by SON. He said this during a special interactive session with manufacturers in Lagos.
He called on manufacturers to contribute their quota to ensure that the initiative succeeds. According to Odumodu, all hands are on deck to ensure that only goods that are certified would be paraded in the Nigerian market. “The level of substandard goods that come into the country is about 95 percent of the total fake products in the market. In other words, when we impound 100 units of fake and substandard products in the market, 95 of them are imported products, made in other countries. Most products produced in Nigeria meet the minimum standards. I try to draw a correlation between that and local production. I want to say that you do not need anybody to prove it to you that Nigeria is going through a silent de-industrialisation process. It has happened in the last 25 years and it has continued to happen.
“All we have done in SON is intervening in the process but it has not stopped but continued to exacerbate. What this means is that employment opportunities are limited and industrial growth is challenged. What we are trying to do is reduce the level of substandard goods in the country by creating a very strong enforcement regime to the displeasure of people who have made billion of naira from the situation we found ourselves,” he said.
Odumodu decried the continued patronage by consumers of substandard goods, pointing out that these goods have continued to thrive in the Nigerian market because consumers do not take the pain to check goods before purchase. “The problem we have is that consumers do not take the pain to check and that is why the bad business has continued to progress. We also realised the need to connect with consumers and today for example, if you are involved in the tyre business, prior before now, nobody knew that tyres expire, and nobody knew that cement expire but Nigerians know today. The only outcome worth our while is when the consumer is protected. The most effective enforcement regime is an informed consumer who takes action because if a consumer takes action, we do not need to go and stop people at the ports.”
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Ministry Saves N17 Billion in 5 years
THE federal government has said it saved N171.85 billion in the past five years through the scrutiny of technology transfer agreements entered into between organisations in Nigeria and foreign entities. Abdu Bulama, minister of science and technology, the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion has been scrutinising applications for technology acquisition from operators in the Nigerian economy.
The minister who disclosed this at the 2014 ministerial platform, in Abuja on Thursday, November 27, said on a year-by-year basis, N13.01 billion was saved in 2009; N94.42 billion in 2010; N28.56 billion in 2011; N8.46 billion in 2012 and N27.4 billion in 2013. “The intervention of NOTAP has led to financial savings for the country, which would have been unremitted due to over-invoicing of technology transfer fees. Since the inception of NOTAP, it has made financial savings in billions of naira, due to its intervention in the process of evaluation and registration of technology transfer agreements,” he said.
According to Bulama, the National Space Research and Development would launch a satellite made in Nigeria by 2018. Currently, the three satellites that Nigeria has in the space were either made in China or United Kingdom. The minister said the 2018 target for a satellite made in Nigeria was realisable. They (NASRDA) should be able to meet the target of 2018 to produce a Nigerian satellite.”
He said in line with the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan, the ministry had focused on boosting agricultural raw materials through a number of activities. “The Raw Material Research and Development Council procured 1.6 and 2.0 tonnes of Samcot, 11 and 13 varieties of cotton respectively from the Institute of Agricultural Research, ABU, Zaria and distributed them to members of the National Cotton Association of Nigeria in six states including Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Edo States.
“This is targeted at increasing cotton yield to feed the textile industry that is almost comatose due to insufficiency of raw materials or reliance on imported cotton resulting in undue competition. The Oyo State Sugar cane Farmers Union was provided with 60 tonnes of sugar cane seeds for their sugar cane farm clusters. These programmes are projected to create 20,000 jobs along the agricultural and industrial manufacturing value chain over a period of five years,” Bulama said.
— Dec. 8, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
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