Director General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr Joseph Odumodu has said that Nigeria cannot continually depend on imported goods to thrive.
Odumodu in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria explained that eight out of ten products used in Nigeria are imported and this is adding to the high rate of unemployment in the country.
He said “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 lamented that some fraudulent Nigerians have made a lot of money from importing substandard products.
He said “Most of the bad cables that come into Nigeria are coming through the borders, they do not come through the ports.
“So, the new Act of SON, 2015 enables the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment to designate a port on the advice of SON for a particular set of products when they are life endangering.
“We can now go to the minister and say we do not want the cables to come through the borders, we want them to come only through Apapa or Tincan Island.
“When that is approved by the minister it automatically becomes law and what it means is that if I see any cable at Seme Border, I can destroy it without testing.W
“I assure you that the new act brings relief to Nigerian industries, which means more employment, economic development and government will generate more tax. This is how it is all linked up and it is possible.”
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