The Standard Organisations of Nigeria (SON) on Friday seized substandard aluminum sheets worth over N200 million from aluminum companies in Uyo Akwa Ibom.
The Director, Inspectorate and Compliance Directorate, Mr Obiora Manafa, told journalists after evacuating substandard aluminum roofing sheets products at Tevoli Aluminum factory at Ikot Oku Ikono junction in Uyo.
Manafa said that SON was on a nationwide mission to save the lives and hard earned resources of Nigerians.
He stressed that the organisation was out to discourage the importation of substandard products into the country, and warned the perpetrators to discontinue the practice.
He said that the minimum standard required is 0.4mm instead of 0.25mm which the company was using for the production of roofing aluminium sheets.
According to him, “We are here to evacuate substandard roofing sheets found here. We have aluminium roofing sheets and galvanised roofing sheets. In this case, we have seen aluminium roofing sheets that are below the minimum required standard.
“The minimum thickness of aluminum roofing sheets is 0.4 millilitre according to NIS 488. NIS 488 is the standard for aluminum roofing sheets, while that of galvanised roofing sheet is 0.15 according to NIS 180. We have come here and have discovered that they even have 0.2 and 0.25 millilitre which is far below the minimum required thickness.
“This has a lot of consequences using this aluminium roofing sheets because anyone buying it will not have value for their money. Once you buy it, any little wind will blow your roof off. This is why we are trying to discourage Nigerians from importing substandard products. People go out there, import these products knowing fully well that Nigerian standard is 0.4 millilitre.
“We want to discourage this, we want to stop them, we want to eradicate all substandard products especially roofing sheets from the market. That is why we came here. Once we see them, we confiscate and destroy them. So it will serve as deterrent to others. When you loose a lot of money importing substandard products which you know at the end of the day, you are going to loose the money, so what is the point?
“It is a nationwide thing, as we are here, other people are in other places doing the same thing we are doing here now. SON is not relenting in achieving this result because we must eradicate substandard products from Nigerian markets.
“We want Nigerians to know what we are doing because it is not enough to do it without getting the press involved. If we so it without getting the press involved, people might not know. They might think we are not doing anything. These products we are confiscating is worth over N200 million. Losing over N200 million over substandard products do not make sense.”
The director also urged the Federal Government to return the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to ports to checkmate the influx of substandard products into the country.
He said, “Some of these products come in without Standard Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) certificate.
“This is a programme whereby our accredited agents that perform the inspection overseas on our behalf. They make sure that the aluminum coils for instance meets the 0.4 minimum thickness required. But in order to circumvent the law, they don’t go through this SONCAP programme. So they smuggle these products into the country.”
He, however, said that SON has formed a task force with Galvanised Iron and Steel Manufacturers Association (GISMA), and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) with a 13 point reference that would help checkmate the influx of substandard products into Nigerian markets.