KOREDE FOGO
The Director General, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mallam Farouq Salim, on Thursday, attributed insecurity in the country to importation of substandard good to the country.
Salim, speaking at the during a maritime stakeholders sensitization forum in Apapa with the theme, “Standards Save Lives, Grow Economy,” said substandard products are killing local industries that are supposed to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youths.
According to him, substandard goods are killing the nation’s economy and Nigeria cannot survive with the influx of substandard goods coming into the country.
He said when people bring in substandard or prohibited products even when such person has $10 billion, bandits and cultists will make such importer lose such products and money because of his contribution to the economic woes.
“If we bring in substandard good, then we are killing our local industries. Substandard goods lead to insecurity that it become a problem that the wealth accrued can’t be enjoyed. We have too many unemployed Nigerian Youths and it doesn’t occur to us that we are the one responsible for their unemployment.”
“The point of this gathering is to make sure is try to sensitize each other in what we look out for. When we bring in any substandard products, we are not here to spoil anybody’s products, we are doing it to protect your business and people that are buying the products.
“In other climes, when you buy a product and sell it to the public and the public get injured or they don’t get satisfaction by the product, you would get sued. When you get sued, you lost lot of money, sometimes, they take you to jail.”
“In Nigeria, we have not developed to that level. In Nigeria, someone will import substandard cable and sell it to Nigerians and fire spreads out because of that cable and the whole family perishes and die.”
He said nobody tracks the sellers of that product, arrest that person, and charge him with manslaughter, adding that absence of that has made businessmen think their business is only to make money by hook or crook.
He urged the stakeholders to engage in importation of genuine products into the country, adding that if substandard goods continue to come into the country, the local manufacturers and industries would be destroyed.
Salim noted that the essence of the sensitization with stakeholders was to communicate and share views on how to make businesses more efficient.
Meanwhile, the Vice President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto, said the country must win the war against importation of sub-standard goods in the country.
Farinto delivering a paper, “Juxtaposing Substandard Imports SON’s” informed that SON has vacated the seaports about few years ago, with the intention of the government to allow the Agency do the role of regulation outside the ports.
The ANLCA vice president, noted that if the trend is not arrested urgently by providing solution, then it may affect the economy and dwindle the nation’s income drastically.
Farinto while urging freight forwarders said, ” if we must achieve ease of doing business, then freight forwarders, Licensed Customs Brokers, should do away with dishonesty in it’s declaration. Dishonesty such as concealment, inaccurate description of imports and exports in order to circumvent the procedures, which served as an impediments to achieving ease of doing business.