It’s not true — SON DG By Soni Daniel & Favour Nnabugwu Importers in the country have accused the current leadership of the Standards Organization of Nigeria, SON, of inflicting unnecessary losses on them as a result of the refusal of the agency to certify their goods and services on time for clearance by the relevant agencies.
The importers in a strongly worded protest letter sent to Vanguard, blamed the Director General of SON, Dr. Paul Angya, of sitting on their SONCAP certificates for months, thereby making them incur undue demurrhage on their containers. SON boss kicks, denies claim But Angya in a swift reaction, denied the claims, saying he had not done anything to slow down the certification of genuine papers for the clearance of goods at the ports.
SONCAP is a product conformity scheme with the aim of helping to ensure that products imported into Nigeria meet minimum safety requirements to ensure Nigerian consumers are not exposed to potentially unsafe and sub-standard goods. As a result, it is compulsory for all importers to present SONCAP certificates at the point of clearance of their goods before such could be released to them by the relevant ports agencies, such as Nigerian Ports Authority, the Nigerian Customs Service and the National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration and Control.
However, the importers alleged that since his appointment, Angya had been subjecting them to untold hardship by not paying attention to their applications, many of which have been on his table for months. The complaining importers said: “Since assuming office, Dr. Angya has not been treating importers with the attention they deserve.” “Nobody knows what the DG wants. Our papers have been on his table for the past three and half weeks and the man is yet to act on them even when we have paid the statutory fees. “Without the acknowledgement and approval of the man, we cannot get our SONCAP which is necessary to process and pay duty on our goods at the port. And yet, demurrage is mounting on our goods daily. The former Director General was never like this,” one of the importers complained yesterday.
Curtsy: vanguard