Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has unveiled additional strategy to reduce the incidence of substandard products in Nigeria. The Director General, Mr. Osita Aboloma said that the planned introduction of Product Authentication Mark (PAM) for imported and locally manufactured products would enhance quality products and tackle cloning and production of counterfeiting goods.
At a stakeholders’ workshop for the North-Central zone, held in Abuja, Mr Aboloma said that PAM was the latest innovation by SON to help reduce substandard products through the affixing of hologram stickers with security features on products certified for sale in Nigeria.
“Through the PAM sticker, SON has added another layer of Standardisation and quality control to the manufacturing and supplying chain in line with international best practice in other parts of the world, including Africa,” he explained.
Mr Aboloma stated that, “SON strategy is to deploy PAM to thwart the unscrupulous efforts of some manufacturers, producers and importers, who deal in substandard products through cloning and counterfeiting. Consumers only need to use a downloadable application on smart phones to scan the code on the sticker or send an SMS to a dedicated number to verify if products are certified by SON and fit for use, once PAM becomes operational from February, 2018,” he said.
The other benefits of the PAM include the hologram security feature which will help to promote quality products and items in the market as products of first choice by consumers because the quality has been assured by SON as against products that do not carry the sticker.
The PAM sticker is also geared towards ensuring that counterfeiters and counterfeit goods have no patronage from Consumers thus eliminating them from Nigerian markets.
The Head Product Authentication Mark (PAM) Unit, Mr. Usman Mohammed represented the Director General at the event.
The Head SONCAP Unit, Mr. Pious Manji said that SON was working on ways of reducing substandard products in Nigeria.
According to him, the introduction of PAM is yet another innovation to add value to already existing regiments of conformity assessment programmes that have been put in place over time.
These include; the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) for locally manufactured products and the off-shore Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) to checkmate the incidences of the manufacture and import of substandard product into the country respectively.
“The introduction of the PAM sticker programme is the missing link in the conformity assessment value chain by providing a robust way of authenticating imported and locally manufactured products that have gone through SON’s standardisation, quality assurance and certification processes at a glance,” Mr Manji explained.
He called on producers, manufacturers, importers and consumers alike to key into this programme meant to ensure quality, safety of lives and guarantee value for money for all Nigerians.
The implementation of the PAM sticker scheme is slated to commence in February 2018.
Products imported without the stickers are only allowed to be in the markets until March 31, 2018 while local manufacturers and importers with stocks likely to be in the market after the deadline are advised to apply online from the SON website.
