The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is partnering with online vendors to checkmate the sale of sub-standard foreign manufactured products in Nigeria.
The Head of Department, Consumer Complaint of SON, Mrs Mosunmola Samuel, disclosed this to newsmen in Lagos.
Samuel said that the sophisticated and dynamic nature of e-commerce has made it difficult to track substandard goods since most of the dealers do not have warehouses or fixed addresses.
But she said that the SON’s partnership with the online traders would help to track down dealers who would want to abuse online platforms as channels for the sale of substandard wares.
She also urged consumers to always report to the SON any delivery of sub-standard products through online platforms.
“Most of these online dealers import their products as personal effects. The e-commerce in the Nigerian community is becoming huge and many steps have been taken for its promotion, but there are still lots to be done to make it operate in accordance with standards in the country.
“This is why we are working assiduously on partnering with online merchants to ensure that Nigeria is not a destination for substandard goods.
“We get the feedback through the head of our public relations and follow up with directives to online merchants to stop sales of such product immediately we get a complaint and they will pull it down.
“You know with online marketing, you don’t need to have a shop or selling bulk, all you need is just a hand full of those products and you are already in business,” Samuel said.
She urged online merchants to strictly adhere to quality products and services to achieve inclusive growth.
“The world all over is about standards and we are working tirelessly to educate Nigerians so as to be abreast with global trend.
“On e-commerce, we have so many operating on different platforms and if these products are not registered with our product registration, it means that they are not complying with the requirements of our act.
“So we need to check and find out where these products are coming from and for every products coming into the country, there is always a major channel.
“We are happy when consumers give us feedbacks which show their level of confidence on the organisation.
“We are proud for the trust in us to start our consumer protection mandate as it also helps us develop and introduce new standards,” she averred.
She pointed out that SON handled consumer complaints through its customer feedback desks which were in all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
