7 Functions of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria informs you of the functions of the Organisation and outlines its strides towards achievements.

Functions of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria

A brief history of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria

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The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is a regulatory body with the sole responsibility of standardizing and regulating the quality of all products in Nigeria.

The agency was established by the Act No.56 of 1971. And it’s a full member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

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The leadership of The standard organizations of Nigeria

The standards organization of Nigeria has a superior body known as the Nigerian Standards Council which acts as the chief policy-making body that supervises the administration and financial management of the Organisation.

The Director-General of the Organisation is the Chief Executive who ensures a smooth running of the day-to-day administration of the Organisation within the broad guidelines approved by the Council.

Functions of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria

Sometimes ago, Nigeria was almost seen as a dumping ground for inferior products because little or nothing had been done to ascertain the quality of products even before they cross the boundaries.

A few years ago, the Standards Organization of Nigeria came into existence and has played a great role over the years in changing the status quo.

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Functions of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria include:

1. Overseeing the activities of manufacturers

Being an agency of the federal government set aside to ensure compliance with set standards, the standards organization of Nigeria plays a great role in monitoring and supervising the activities of manufacturers. This is to make sure that there is strict adherence to standards.

2. Certification of products

This is a major role of the Standards organization of Nigeria and it is done to promote a product’s competitiveness locally and across the Nation’s borders.

Issuance of certificates increases recognition of such products and makes them generally regarded as safe due to the series of processes involved in the certification of such.

3. Consumer protection

In the area of consumer protection, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria has done credibly well. Ranging from consumer sensitization campaigns to regular inspections of products, the plight of innocent consumers has been taken into serious consideration.

The SON has provided an interface between Consumers and service providers or manufacturers and has helped protect the consumers by spearheading the fight towards ensuring a reduction in substandard goods across the country, assuring consumers of safety.

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4. Standardization of manufacturing practices in Nigeria

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria plays a great role in ensuring that standards are being adhered to. It majority sets out standards that serve as a benchmark to be met by the manufacturer, therefore, ensuring a reduction in unwholesome and sub-standard products in the Nigerian markets.

Recently, the PAM was introduced into the system. The PAM is a mark of quality attached to all finished products to demonstrate their conformity to approved standards.

The PAM is issued as a sticker with security features and a QR code that can be scanned by a smartphone. And it’s applied to each product to ensure traceability and tracking of imported and local products.

5. Assisting the government in good policymaking

The SON also helps the government in good policy-making as it concerns the importation of goods into the country. This is achieved by a routine overview of the nature of importation done.

SON gets to ascertain the quality of numerous Imports and thus, can proffer solutions to the alarming rate of low-quality products importation.

It also helps the government to place bans on goods that have suspicious traits, or that aren’t fit for consumption.

6. Acts as an interface between Nigeria and the World

The Standard Organisations of Nigeria act as an interface between Nigeria and the international body on standardization.

Being a longstanding member of the International Standards Organisation, the Nigerian Standards Organisation draws standards and makes sure that Nigeria isn’t left behind in the fight towards achieving standardization.

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7. It promotes safe practices in trade and manufacturing

The setting of standards, monitoring, and supervision to ascertain compliance to such is a great tool for ensuring a balance in manufacturing and trade.

This alone eliminates sub-substandard and adulterated products from the market while ensuring that Nigerian products have an edge in the international market through compliance with international standards which aren’t so different from the Nigerian standards set by SON. Through the process of standardization, the SON plays a role in ensuring safe practice in the trade.

This is because standards ought to be met and scrupulous manufacturers can’t really deal with it, hindering their tricky and dubious acts of producing adulterated goods and disseminating them into the market.

Over the years, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria has gone a long way toward achieving its mandate and such strides are very commendable. Today, Nigeria stands tall in the committee of nations who are members of the international body of standardization.

Now you know the Functions of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria!