The Acting Director General of Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) Dr. Paul Angya has assured Freight Forwarders and their importers that Federal Government is putting all measures in place to address the current challenges Nigerians are encountering when obtaining E-SON CAP certificate for cargo clearance.
Dr. Paul Angya who gave the assurance while receiving the high powered delegation from the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) during an official visit to the SON headquarters in Lekki, Lagos.
According to the SON boss, “the issue of quality control has been our major priority, we are conscious of this hardship and we are seriously working with relevant government agencies. Kill substandard products before it will kill us, kill corruption before it will kill us”.
While fielding questions on the areas of variance in certificate which delay the processing of Form M, DG urged importers to be honest in their declarations in order to enjoy the benefit of fast trace/ risk profile as its been categorized by the agency, as category A, B and C.
“I will respect NAGAFF, I also expect NAGAFF to respect me, just as I respect my staffs and I expect my staffs to respect me. Henceforth, I will ensure all my operational staffs put on their office ID when performing examination of containers, anything contrary to this sanction.”
Earlier in his speech , the Founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam made who led the delegation of all his Executives and various Chapter Chairman of NAGAFF stressed the need for SON to be well represented at border stations like Jibiya border. Noting that a lot of unexpected things are current taking place at the border since the sea point it is no more business as usual.
While assuring SON, that NAGAFF members are ready to give adequate support in assisting the FG to facilitate trade, Dr. Boniface gave a brief history of how NAGAFF was able to liberalized some of the border from monopolist.
“The billing method of SON should be revisited and properly monitored, we want SON to come back to the port so that the issue of road blocks will fade out”, he said.
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