The Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has said that it has established a full-fledged Alternative Dispute Resolution desk within its Customer Feedback and Collaboration unit as a means of easing the cost of doing business in Nigeria.
The Director-General of SON, Mr. Osita Anthony Aboloma who disclosed this on the occasion of national stakeholders’ sensitization workshop on the SON Act 2015 and the Ease of Doing Business held in Lagos on Tuesday said that the agency’s mode of conflict resolution was by negotiation, mediation and conciliation.
Represented by the Director Legal Services in the agency, Barr. Umar Kawu, Aboloma noted that the SON Act and the Ease of Doing Business posed a big challenge towards their collective efforts to do the right thing for businesses whether small or big, importing or exporting, the nation’s agricultural and agro-allied sector, manufacturing, industrial and construction sectors among others.
According to him,” One may ask, what is the relationship between the SON Act and the federal government’s initiative of Ease of Doing Business? The SON Act 2015 passed in 2015 has certain unique provisions towards ensuring that a level playing field is created for our manufacturers, importers, traders and exporters. These provisions include: removal of substandard products from the market place for a period of 90 days without judicial intervention, proceeding against offenders and enhance penalties against persons who deal with products that do not comply with any mandatory industrial standard(s)”.
He disclosed that the punishments range from fine of not less than N1,000,000 or 15% less of the value of the product to fine of not less than N200,000 or 20% of the value of the product.
“The entire essence of these provisions is to ensure that compliant business persons are not disadvantaged by persons who engage in the manufacture, importation or exportation of substandard products. Where every person concerned with manufacture, importation, sale of products do so acting on the same requirements, cost of doing business would become predictable as discipline would be brought into the system.
“It is the same discipline that the Ease of Doing Business initiative seeks to bring into our system and where cost variables are minimized, price divergence is eliminated. On our part, we solemnly resolve that though the law has clothed SON with enormous powers, these powers would only be exercised as a matter of last resort. Our preferred mode of conflict resolution is by negotiation, mediation and conciliation. Towards this end, SON has established a full-fledged Alternative Dispute Resolution desk within its Customer Feedback and Collaboration unit. This is also a means of easing cost of doing business. Here, therefore lies the link between SON Act 2015 and the ease of doing business in Nigeria”, he explained.
The DG therefore assured Nigerians of SON’s resolve to be a trade facilitator and a change agent in ensuring that the nation’s economic and industrial growth is fast tracked.
In a lecture entitled, “Using SON Act to midwife Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria”, a legal practitioner, Mr. Ubong Akpan recalled that at the nation’s seaports in the past, there used to be between seven and twelve tables which acted as checkpoints where one had to take his documents to be checked all over again from the beginning across each table which in turn delayed trade.
He suggested that if everybody would be at one unit and papers pass through one unit allowing any agency that identified discrepancies to iron out issue with you without other agency interfering, it would to a large extent ease cost of doing business at the nation’s seaports.
While pointing out that government agencies should not put road blocks in the way of businessmen, Akpan reiterated that the real reason behind the Ease of Doing Business environment was that one does his business once he met the criteria without interruption from anybody.
He added,” You don’t need to know anybody in SON to pay for your permit now, check online. You can check the progress of your registration, how far your documents have gone, you can track your documents, you can track your registration process. There is a portal for it bur a lot of people don’t know it. Open your smart phones and check, it is called registration status, click it and it will show you how far your registration has gone in the process. It is not as difficult as we intend to make it seem”.
He however acceded to the fact that one of the things that government needed to do is the internet backbone which he said needed to be beefed up saying that when one comes to Nigeria, a lot of times, internet transactions were marred with difficulties.
“You need your own infrastructure for your own internet, that is why every bank has its own internet infrastructure. We simply don’t have a good and clear internet infrastructure. You have galaxy backbone that is supposed to set up our internet infrastructure but one hears different stories about why things cannot be far better than they are. I don’t want to condemn anybody but the truth is that our internet structure is poor”, he said.
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