Taiwo Hassan 
As Nigeria and others are expected to gather at the the Intra-African Trade Fair, in Algiers, Algeria, in line with the commencement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has disclosed that the new Mandatory Conformity Accessment Programme (MANCAP) certification will be a tool for market access and to promote competitiveness of Nigerian products in the continent and beyond.
SON has, therefore, issued a 6-month grace for all manufactured products in Nigeria to carry its new MANCAP logo as it symbolises commitment.
The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of SON, Dr. Ifeanyi Okeke, who disclosed this in Lagos recently, said that it would facilitate trade and export growth.
Dr. Okeke stated that SON played critical role in facilitating imports and exports. He said: “I want to say that when I came on board, one of my key focus or areas is the quality of our products.
To improve services through technology. “And automation is very key to me, because of the background of where I’m coming from. For those that don’t know, I was formerly a banker, and I know what it is.
“For you to remain competitive in the banking sector, you have to be constantly innovative. You have to be thinking out of the box. What do I have to do to be ahead of my competitors, right? And one of those things is something to do with automation.
“Even though in this case it’s different, because we are not competing with anybody, but we also need to provide excellent services.
So one of the few things I came up with is to ensure that automation of the system, our services, to make our service ease, to create ease of service delivery.”
He continued: “SON’s certification services builds investors confidence through quality assurance and promoting a business regulatory environment.”
Okeke reaffirmed the need to eliminate fake and counterfeit products from the nation’s market. He pointed out that the rebranding of the MANCAP logo was not only a change of aesthetics, saying that it represented a new dedication to quality assurance and a proactive response to the evolving changing challenges confronting the agency, including the pressing need to combat counterfeiting and streamline the process for manufacturers.
He said the initiative was of paramount importance in promoting a level playing field for manufacturers, adding that one of his key focus or areas was to improve services through technology and automation.
“We are also committed to safeguarding the interests of our esteemed consumers and ultimately enhancing the competitiveness of Nigerian products on the global stage,” he said.
In his response, the Director General of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, proposed an extension of the deadline, appealling that six month grace period was not enough for manufacturers.
