80% of products in Nigeria are imported – SON

The Director General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Dr Joseph Odumodu, has said Nigerians must change their consumption pattern for the economy to thrive.

Odumodu said this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Friday, adding that currently, the country’s consumption pattern was about 80 per cent of imported products.

He noted that no nation would become independent through importation, adding that Nigeria needed to do more to ensure that its industries were functional to provide jobs for the youth.

Odumodu stated, “Anytime you are importing, you are paying salaries of people abroad.

“This is a highly populated country, where will our graduates work when there are fewer industries today than there were 20 years ago? There are more graduates today than we had 20 years ago; we have to begin to address these inconsistencies.

“So, as I am talking to you, eight out of 10 products used in Nigeria are imported. It is not good, it is something we must try to change in the next three to four years to reduce it to 50.

He expressed regret that some people preferred to do business that harmed other Nigerians by importing substandard products, restating SON’s determination to ensure the situation did not persist.

The SON boss stressed that though the law had empowered SON to act, it required the personnel to enforce rules on the standardisation of products.

Odumodu explained that there were over 1,000 markets in Nigeria as well as many borders, saying the only way to address the issue of standards was to get people to enforce rules.

“You do not keep the same person, if you keep the same person for three to six months, he will no longer see anything wrong with the importation of substandard products,” he said.