The Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has announced its willingness to reopen the Electronic Provision Clearance Certificate (EPCC) shut down in March this by the agency starting from the 25th of April, 2016.
The Acting Director-General of SON, Dr. John Angya who made this disclosure Tuesday at a Maritime Stakeholders Awareness Programme in Lagos said the reopening was in fulfillment of his earlier promise to those who came to make representations in his office following the closure of the platform in March that they would review the closure.
Angya disclosed that having reviewed the closure alongside his management, the agency was going to reopen the EPCC platform for three months staring from the 25th of April, 2016 to July 25th, 2016 after which it would be shut down permanently as it had become a route through which the Nigerian economy was dying now.
He noted that the level of substandard products in Nigeria was unacceptable to the extent that it had gotten the attention of the government as well as that of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment that he had directed the agency to clean up the system adding that the cleanup of the system was something he intended to do in three months.
According to him,” And so, I am coming here today to tell you two things and to ask you for one thing, so that makes it three things. The first thing I have told you is the unacceptable level of substandard products in Nigeria, this thing has gotten to the extent that it has caught the attention of government, it has gotten to the level that a Minister has to say, look, you go and clean up the system and you know what clean up means? If you stand in the way, you will be cleaned along, that is what it means. So, go and cleanup the system means go and clean up anything that is standing on your way from getting the place cleaned up. I am telling you also that I intend to clean up the system in three months. That is number one.
“Number two, because I have promised to review the closure arising from the representation that I had from your representatives, but from what I have seen today, those people I don’t know if they are representing themselves because I have seen a large number of people here today and you might not even be aware that such people came to complain about the closure of the EPCC but I have promised that I will review it and we have reviewed it and so today, alongside my management, we are going to reopen that platform for three months starting 25th of April. Which means by July and when we clean it, by July we seal it, we use cement on it so that you can’t break it because that platform is the route through which Nigerian economy is dying now.
So, the second thing I am saying is that by the 25th of July, that window will shut and shut permanently, even if my father says I should open it, he will come out from the grave and open it because I will not open it”.
He therefore appealed to the stakeholders not to consider coming back to make another request for it to be reopened on the expiration of the said three months adding that they could go ahead and beat the system as he had been threatened by importers that if he should shut down the platform, they would find a way around it even as he added,” but my name will not be on the board and God help you get caught because you will no longer be treated as an ordinary importer of fake goods, we will treat you as an economic saboteur”.
He continued,” For this three months that we are giving, we will clean up the system, if you want, find your own means, we will find our own means. The third point is what are you going to do or what solutions are you going to proffer to this problem?”
Tracing the origin of EPCC, the SON boss revealed that the EPCC platform was a temporary window put in place by the agency to solve the problems created by the sudden migration from the manual SONCAP to electronic SONCAP which was meant to facilitate trade but regretted that the platform which was created to facilitate trade was where all the criminal activities in the world had been channeled.
“The EPCC window, that is where more than 60% of the products imported into this country bypass all the quality assurance system. So, today, we have come to a point where more than 60%b of products coming into Nigeria are not being subjected to product inspection and quality verification because they were going through, everybody even those who could go through SONCAP verification are going through the EPCC route”, he said.
He further noted that knowing that EPCC was supposed to be a temporary window by World Trade Organization (WTO) rule which could subsist for only 90 days, the agency did not stop the window which started in September 2016 and was supposed to end by December 10, 2015 for fear of the stakeholders thus allowing the platform run through to March 2016 when it was finally shut down.
“And so, we shut down that window in March and there was an outcry, some people even claiming they want to carry placards, you are carrying placards against who? Against what? What is your request? That a system that is undermining our country, that is killing people, killing our economy and we want to stop it and you are carrying placards. A few people came to me and we said okay, we will review it and see what can be done to again ease the pain but we must always ask ourselves, what are trading for”, the DG SON stated.
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1 Comment
That Nigeria is now a dumping ground of some sort is stating the obvious. This step taken by the SON director general Dr Paul Angya is a welcome development. The trading public should fall in line to try and regularise their import documentation so as to avoid paying unnecessary storage and demurage charges.