Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga has lamented that 103 Nigerian products exported abroad in the last five years have been rejected for not meeting international quality standards.
Aganga said this in Abuja while unveiling the new office complex of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria. He noted that lack of standard testing laboratories is the cause of the product rejection.
He said “We all say we want to diversify the economy with a view to increasing our income from non-oil products. But there is no way we can achieve this without having quality infrastructure such as the laboratory.
“For instance, we could not export yam to the United Kingdom because we do not have a laboratory to test it here. Those who export products in Nigeria take them to Ghana to test them and the credit goes to Ghana.
“In the last five years, Nigeria has more than 103 rejects. If you compare that to other African countries like South African and Ghana, who only have between six to seven rejects, our is unacceptable.”
He however said the current administration has set up an internationally accredited laboratory in Lagos.
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