Two years into the leadership of Dr. Ifeanyi Chukwunonso Okeke as Director-General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the agency is taking giant and strategic strides to strengthen the nation’s industrial support systems through regional expansion and proximity to production clusters.
The commissioning of new SON offices in Minna and in Sokoto, recently, highlights this direction and signals an attempt to reshape national quality infrastructure to better serve manufacturers, traders, exporters, and consumers.
In Minna and in Sokoto, the emphasis was on decentralisation and accessibility to standardisation by manufacturers, especially the Medium and Small Scale Enterprises (MSMEs).
The Minna office was commissioned by the Director of Projects at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, who represented the minister, Dr Jumoke Oduwole.
In Sokoto, the SON office was commissioned by the Minister of State, Senator John Owan Enoh.
The ministers described the facilities as part of the federal government’s efforts to make quality assurance more practical, visible and locally-available.
At the commissioning in Sokoto, Enoh said the move reflected the innovation and collaboration encouraged under the Renewed Hope Industrialisation Agenda of the federal government, noting that standardisation must now translate into real support for enterprise and competitiveness, particularly for small businesses.
Also speaking at the commissioning of the Minna office in Niger State, Dr. Oduwole described the SON facility as a tool to help local producers to meet both domestic and export market requirements.
