SON vows to deregister products with similar name

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

With many products in Nigerian market today operating with similar names, or hiding under the names of successful brands to dupe unsuspecting  consumers, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has vowed to deregister them.

Mallam Farouk Salim, the Director General of SON, made the clarification during a courtesy visit of the Alaba International Market Associations to SON office in Lagos.

The act which he explained as cleaning according to him has taken  a huge chunk of market share and equity from original manufacturers.

He said “the issue of cloning brands cannot be handled alone by SON, but going forward, we are going to audit the products we register and certify it.

“Anytime a new product comes and looks similar to another registered product  that is already popular in the market, we will try to discourage the registration of that product with such a name, so that other products would be identified properly. This will increase
traceability of products not yet in circulation,” he said.

The Director General, however assured of plans to increase level of engagement with stakeholders in the country, including Alaba International Market, noting that the move by the agency would help protect the interest of the business community while also safeguarding lives and property.

He said the standards body would work with stakeholders to sensitize the business community on the need to ensure safety and standards, warning that dishonest individuals would be escape the full wrought of the law.

He stated,  “We are here to work with them and to make their job easy while also to protect their interest because they are Nigerians employing people and they are doing what needs to be done. We are looking forward to cooperating with them to ensure that every other individual in their association not doing the right thing is encouraged to doing the right thing in the future.”

“We are inviting stakeholders and the plan is to work together with stakeholders to sensitize and train  them on safety of lives  and property.” Salim stated.

Breakers of the law he stated would face appropriate  sanctions

“As for those still breaking the laws, we will enforce our laws either by court or through appropriate regulations .”

The DG further assured that SON would reach out to the community through sensitization programmes to highlight the negative impacts of substandard goods on the business community.

“They have promised to work with us and those people who are not doing the right thing would be fished out. The task is for us to continue cooperation, continue openness and to be fair with each other.

” We want you to be our eyes in the market. Help us make our work easy because we are out here to make you competitive. Let us work together to make this happen as we would be reaching to everyone in the market,” he said.

In his speech at the event, the Executive Chairman, Electrical Dealers Association of Nigeria (EDAN), Fabian Ezeorjika, said there is an already existing partnership with SON to achieve a substandard free market.

He reaffirmed the association’s commitment to working with SON to fish out the bad eggs in the market, saying that the association had formed a Joint Task Force comprising of SON officials and currently running a “buyer beware campaign” in the market.

“SON has destroyed a lot of products, while some of our members are in court and we are going to increase the level of collaboration with SON because we want to bring an end to substandard goods.

Ezeorjika called on SON to encourage local production, saying that this is the surest way to create wealth and job opportunities for the nation’s teeming youths.

“We need to create a conducive environment for local production.
Importation only creates job opportunities for people we import from. We must create a platform to boost local production,” he said.