SON Warns on Fake Bulbs and Lamps

Fri, Sep 20, 2013
By publisher
4 MIN READ

Business Briefs

THE Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, has started enforcement and seizure of substandard electrical bulbs and lamps in the markets. Joseph Odumodu, director-general of the agency, stated this during a meeting with dealers of electrical bulbs and lamps in Lagos. He said henceforth, the agency would be going to the various markets and seize any sub-standard bulbs or lamps found in the markets, adding that any product found below standard will be seized and destroyed immediately.

He directed that the lamps and bulbs sold in the market must be registered with immediate effect. Odumodu said that the electrical and electronics market in Nigeria has been a source of serious concern to the organisation due to the high rate of importation of substandard and counterfeited products, a development which must be checked to give the citizens value for their money.

According to him, the electric light market in Nigeria today is filled with more of substandard products especially lamps of different types. He said a normal incandescent lamp was expected to have a minimum life of 1000 hours but stressed that according to lab results, the measured life of these lamps averages between 200 to 480 hours.

He pointed out that 80 per cent of the energy saving lamps had failed the life performance test, saying that the cap of some of the lamps break off from the shell after the burn out time, making it difficult to remove such lamp holder. Odumodu said tests carried out on 72 lamps of 34 brands revealed that 44 out of 72 failed efficacy test, while three out of 72 failed initial torson test.

“Nigerians are losing a lot of money replacing burnt out lamps too often than necessary. Over 80 percent of lamps tested did not declare their power factor. Consumers are being short-changed through the sales of substandard lamps thereby denying them value for their money. The need to sanitise the electric lamp market cannot be over emphasised considering the cost of replacing substandard lamps and the need to ensure that consumers are not exposed to danger of intolerable level of mercury after use and disposal. This measure, you will agree with me, also is in your interest as a consumer of the product. I solicit your support to achieve SON’s policy on zero tolerance for substandard products in Nigeria,” he said.

The proposal that Failed

Oladokun
Oladokun

THERE are indications that the proposed merger of the Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA operators in Nigeria, has failed. The merger, proposed nine months ago, would have comprised Starcomms, Multilinks and MTS, was championed by an American investment group, Capcom Limited, which planned to invest $210 million in the business would have still maintained Starcomms as a brand name.

Capcom is a special purpose vehicle established in 2012, for the acquisition of Starcomms shares and related transactions, with money raised from investment funds, hedge funds, family offices and industry partners around the world. At the formal announcement of the merger plan in December 2012, Olusola Oladokun, acting chief executive officer, Starcomms, said that by April 2013, the $210 million investment from Capcom would reposition the company’s operations, stressing that the company would be providing 4G LTE services. But with less than four months to the end of the year, nothing seems to be in the offing.

Investigations have showed that the CDMA sub-sector, which had about 3.45 million active subscribers as at July 2012, lost 885,191 subscribers, to retain about 2.57 million as at June 2013. The CDMA players, including Visafone, Starcomms, Multilinks among others, which had total connected lines of 14.3 million as at July 2012, currently has 13.8 million subscribers that are connected.

Compiled by Anayo Ezugwu 

— Sep. 30, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

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