Posted by Toyin Obadina, Ibadan on
Two manufacturing companies in Ibadan were on Thursday, sealed by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria for allegedly producing substandard goods.
Two manufacturing companies in Ibadan were on Thursday, sealed by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria for allegedly producing substandard goods.
The companies, with head offices at Orita Basorun and Apata respectively were according to the Head of the Enforcement Unit of SON, Mr. Felix Nyado, had been engaging in deception and ripping off Nigerians.
Nyado who led a team of SON officials and other law enforcement officials to the premises of the two companies, said that though SON was keen to promote the development of small and medium scale industries in the country, it would not condone the continued production of substandard goods.
He said SON had done its homework thoroughly before acting, stressing that the two companies lacked the rudiments of quality control and had been producing without specifying the basic raw materials in their products.
The two companies produce industrial machinery including mixers of various types, garri processing machines, corn grinding machines, chalk making machines, concrete block moulding machines and candle making machines.
But Nyado said SON had received several complaints from consumers who procured the products from the two firms only to discover that they could not perform to specifications. He said SON had written the two companies without adequate response and had been watching them closely for the past three years.
According to him, one consumer bought a machine from one of them at N776,000 with only six months guarantee. He said the machine did not last four months, and that the consumer, a retiree, lodged the complaint to SON whereupon the regulatory agency waded in and discovered that the company lacked the minimum stipulated standard.
The PUNCH, Friday, July 29, 2005