Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), on Tuesday, installed products quality testing equipment at the Bauchi Zonal Laboratory complex to boost testing capacity of products in the North.
The Director Laboratory Services, Dr. Barth Okoko, disclosed this during the installation of the equipment, demonstration and training of staff in Bauchi.
He said the equipment would be used for testing of products that could be certified and confirmed to be of good quality.
Okoko explained that the installation of the equipment was the first of its kind in the North since inception and most of the agricultural products were from the North.
He said that “over the years, there was none of this nature that could test perishable products that could easily get damaged on transportation.
“The lack of testing caused a lot of losses mainly to the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that often get their products rejected in failing to meet acceptable standard.”
According to him, laboratories are said to be the bedrock of any establishment that is quality conscious because it is through testing that a product can be confirmed to be of quality or not.
He emphasised that certification of products with the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) mark qualifies quality requirements of a product.
He urged stakeholders, particularly farmers, to take advantage of the equipment by bringing their products for test.
Earlier, Alhaji Adamu Abba, the SON Regional Coordinator, said the laboratory and the equipment would serve the Northeast Zone and the entire North respectively.
He noted that products from the North were hitherto sent to Lagos for testing, affecting their certification, adding that with the equipment, however, products would easily be tested and certified before going to markets.
He encourage MSMEs to improve their products through testing process.
