By Meletus EZE
The Phones and Allied Dealers Association (PAPDA) says it has partnered with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to rid the Computer Village in Lagos State of substandard mobile phones.
President of PAPDA, Mr Godfrey Nwosu said in Lagos on Monday that mobile phones in the country had now met the SON’s certification and safe for the use of Nigerians.
Nwosu said that the association had earlier sponsored SON delegates to organise a seminar for the mobile phone manufacturers in China on the expected specification for Nigerian use.
Nwosu spoke against the background that substandard cellphones were still dominating Nigerian markets, especially the Computer Village in Lagos.
He said: ”Whatever you get in the Computer Village is borne out of individual hard work. We hardly get support from the governments or banks; so, we try to be on the right side of the law.
”We have built a good relationship with our suppliers in Hong Kong and China.
“The success already recorded in the country is as a result of the consignments from Hong Kong and China.
”The association has taken SON to China for a seminar on mobile phones.
”I spoke with the Director-Genera of SON that if we are to fight the influx of fake phones, it will start from the manufacturers which necessitated the seminar in China.
”It was a successful seminar where 65 manufacturers of mobile phones were in attendance and sensitised and trained by SON experts.
”Lot of manufacturers have started doing the right thing by registering their products and going for SON meetings, putting up service centres in the country, most brands that produce for us have their service centres in Nigeria.”
The association president said it became necessary so as to give value to customers.
He said that aside from the known brand, any other alternative brands were pushed to have a service centre.
Nwosu said the association was on the look out to ensure that known or alternative brands should be registered with PAPDA, which entails producing the SON certification which if not available, the company would be sent packing.
According to him, it is to ensure that the products brought for sale in the market go through SON’s certification and safe for use in Nigeria.
Nwosu said that one should not expect a hundred per cent adherence to laws and policies.
“What the association is trying to do is to ensure that
through SON’s attaché in PAPDA’s office, the SON team will be mobilised to track warehouses of defaulters and confiscate their products to get them to do the right thing,” he said.
