The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), says that only foreign Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) that have complied with set requirements will be allowed to operate in Nigeria.
Mr Osita Aboloma, SON Director-General disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at its Management Systems Certification (MSC) Clients’ forum.
SON MSC began certification in 1994 in order to ensure quality services. The body was accredited to ISO/IEC 17021 2015 standard by NABDC India.
Third party certification services are also provided to organisations that have established, implemented and maintain a management system that conforms to the requirement of the applicable management system standard.
Aboloma, represented by Mr Umaru Kawu, the Director, Legal Services said that SON as the custodian of standards certification in Nigeria, would ensure that there was a level playing ground for CABs operation in Nigeria.
“Only foreign CABs that have demonstrated compliance with the requirements set by the government of Nigeria and International Accreditation Forum (IAF) will be allowed to operate in the country
“SON will ensure that henceforth, no Nigerian company is denied the benefits of your participation in MSC.
“Foreign CABs that is not well resourced and have established presence in Nigeria will not be allowed to practice in the country,’’ he said.
Aboloma thanked its stakeholders for believing in SON MSC ability to deliver management systems certification that met with global recognition.
“We have not taken acceptance of our certification service for granted, hence we have continually updated our processes to meet with current expectations of our assessors,’’ he said.
As a standardisation body involved in conformity assessment, he said it had continued to ensure that its certification process and schemes were in line with the requirement set out by IFA.
He said it had also ensured that its certification process and schemes were in line with the requirement of Conformity Assessment Committee (CASCO) of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
“We have demonstrated this competence by having our certification accredited by National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCD), India.
“We have the largest number of certified, competent and experienced lead auditors by a CAB in Africa.
“Schemes run in transparent and fair manner without prejudice and discrimination of any applicant due to its size, type of business, financial or political background,’’ he said.
The SON director-general gave assurance that its body was a biggest Management System Certification Body in Africa that was well resourced and could deliver quality assured services.
He said that SON was committed to bringing the quality infrastructure to the stakeholders for their businesses to benefit from its implementation at subsidised cost.
Mr Felix Nyado, the Director MSC, SON said the forum
was a feedback mechanism where the information on current development in the field of accreditation, certification and services were passed on to clients.
He said that certification could help clients to improve their service delivery to meet customers’ requirements.
Nyado said that there was a difference between product and system certification.
According to him, system certification is all about arranging your processes in a way that you can deliver on your final outcome.
“The first route is that you will train your staff on management principle because you must align yourself with processes around the clause.
“We informed them that as part of SON’s regulatory requirements, before you practice as an auditor, there will be need for registration.
“We get a feedback from them on how we have been delivering our services to them when we go for audit, certification process and equally check back whether the certification we have done for them is adding value or not.
“The first route to system certification is that you will train your staff on management principle because you must align yourself with processes around the clause.
“Certification is all about checking what you are doing, aligning what you are doing with expertise,’’ he explained.
Mr Joseph Taiwo of Dangote Group, commended SON for its efforts toward developing systems management for companies across the country.
Taiwo said that system management certification helps company’s processes, saying that the certification had added value to their products over the years.
“Our organisation is certified to ISO 90001 2015, which is quality management system, environmental management system ISO 140001 2015 and occupational health and safety management systems which is ISO 450001 2018 among others,’’ he said. (NAN)
