The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) have partnered to tackle the menace of fake products in the country.
Director-General of SON, Malam Farouk Salim, who dropped this hint at a sensitisation programme in Lagos, warned the distributors of fake and substandard products in the country that it would no longer be business as usual for them.
The sensitisation programme with the theme, “The Use of Crime Record Information Management System as a tool to fight the influx of fake/sub-standard products and other related crimes in Nigeria”, drew participants from the organised private sector as well as sister regulatory agencies.
Represented by the SON’s Director of Inspectorate and Compliance, Dr Omolara Okunola, Salim said the partnership would check the high incidence of financially-related crimes, especially the influx of counterfeit products into the country.
The director-general stated that the agency would get its staff properly trained on special applications to fight crime and get rid of counterfeit, fake and substandard products coming into the country.
“Our core mandate is to ensure that products and services locally made or imported into Nigeria meet standards and quality benchmarks in line with global best practices.
“You know, before you can do anything either in production or services, you need to gather the necessary data.
“And that is why this intervention by NFIU comes in handy for us to do documentation, intelligence reports to detect and track dubious importers and fraudsters.
“The collaboration would go a long way to unmask the hidden hands backing importation of substandard goods into the country.
“This would in turn help check the menace of fake products across the country,” Salim said.
