By Charles Okonji
In its concerted efforts to repositioning Nigeria in the biggest Continental Market, which is the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has commenced regulation of Management System Certification (MSC) services in the country.
Speaking to the media at a one day stakeholders’ engagement for the National Register for Conformity Assessment Practitioners (NRCAP) in Lagos, the Director General, SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, noted that bringing sanity into management system practice would go a long way in eradicating quackery in management system practice, adding that it will also give Nigeria the competitive and comparative advantage to compete in the trade pact.
Enumerating the gains of MSC to trade, the DG stated that MSC helps to improve productivity and efficiency, reduce cost for businesses, increase market share and gain access to new markets.
He stressed that the move was to put an end to uncertified and incompetent certification bodies who shortchange the unsuspecting Nigerian consumers.
According to him, “Stakeholders’ engagement forum is important to reiterate that conformity assessment practice is very central to the sustenance of commercial success and continuity in all sectors. The role of management systems practitioners is vital to ensuring that practices carried out by the industries are in alignment with international best practice in terms of the expectations of existing conformity assessment standards.
“In view of the importance of the authenticity and traceability of products and services, adjudged to have met the requirements of relevant Nigerian Industrial Standards and other approved specifications, SON seeks to pursue the implementation of, Part II, Section 4(d) and Part III, Section 5 of the SON Act No.14 of 2015, via the operation of the NRCAP scheme, in order to establish a directory of verified and registered Conformity Assessment Practitioners in Nigeria for all laboratories, Management system Consultants, Training Service Providers, Certification bodies, inspection bodies, inspectors, auditors and assessors.”
The DG pointed out that lack of regulations of the activities of practitioners over the years has negatively impacted the industry and the country significantly.
He noted that poor protection of genuine practitioners from the negative impacts of unhealthy competition by quacks, poor visibility and recognition of genuine and competent practitioners capable of attracting patronage and partnerships for enhanced trade relationship and poor value for money for unsuspecting customers patronising quacks who deliver poor services was a major problem.
Salim stressed that the unavailability of an official register of competent practitioners to aid national planning and coordination of economic activities that border on standardisation and quality assurance is also a challenge hindering professional management system practice in the nation.
“This engagement is guided by the strategic collaboration/partnership that SON shares with your various organizations over time especially with the SON Management Systems Certification and Training Services departments with which you interface through your customers, of which you are expected to bring to bear, your wealth of experience to this national call,” he said.
He stated that the registration processes including approved guidelines, expectations of benchmarking Conformity Assessment standards and interests while developing the documents were taken into considerations to ensure that the impartiality of the process is assured.
He maintained that the impartiality committee members to drive the process were drawn from critical sectors of the economy like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), NACCIMA, amongst others and adequately trained for the onerous task.
“All these were carried out to safeguard the integrity of the process of registration,” he assured.
The SON DG explained that the registration process will no doubt strengthen the mutual responsibility that SON and critical stakeholders share as partners in the task of nation building and position businesses for better visibility and recognition.
In his remarks, the first president of the Society for Management System Practitioners of Nigeria, Engr. Bode Oke, said the group would join hands with SON to prune quacks in the system in its bid to ensure that consumers get value for money spent.
“We are here to share our knowledge and to join SON in the registration of all management system practitioners. We are going to partner with SON to ensure that the exercise is successful, because we have a lot of companies practicing management systems that are not trained and competent,” he warned.
“We are working together with SON to ensure that we remove all those incompetent people from the system so that whenever a client approaches practitioners for registration, the client will know that he will not be shortchanged and get value for the money spent,” he stated.
He said the roles of system practitioners are vital in business growth and development, maintaining that system practitioners are responsible for taking companies through quality management systems certification, environmental management system certification, occupational health and safety certification and food management system certification.
“The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) have established standards for all management systems and therefore, anyone that would lead companies to obtain these certification must be competent and this is why SON is regulating all the auditors, consultants and even the certification bodies, because we have some certification bodies coming from outside the country that are not competent, so competency is the key word here,” he averred.
Also, a Consultant in the Quality Management System Practice, Patricia Solarin, said standardisation is germane for industrial development, saying that the stakeholders meeting would help to checkmate quacks.
“There are so many briefcase carrying consultants that are going around duping clients and most of these consultants did not even pass their audit test and examination. Without standardisation or regulations, they can practice because there is no law against it as a lot of companies are being shortchanged because people taking them through certification do not really know much, so SON is trying to register auditors and consultants which is a welcome development to ensure that people get value for their hard money spent,” she expressed.
