The Standards Organisation of Nigeria has revealed it achieved more than 60 per cent harmonisation of export certifications, ensuring ease in intra-continental trade.
The SON Assistant Director, Trade, Chioma Chudi-Anaukwu, disclosed this to The PUNCH on the sidelines of the Final Validation of the Market Access Guide and E-Commerce Platform held recently in Lagos by the Nigeria African Continental Free Trade Area Coordination Office.
Chudi-Aniukwu pointed out that SON has made headway in standards harmonisation, especially through Nigeria’s membership in the African Organisation for Standardisation, the continent’s intergovernmental standards body formed by the then Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in 1977.
“We have harmonised standards. SON is part of ARSO because we represent Nigeria in that forum,” the SON official stated.
“If you come to certify your product, for instance, you (produce and sell) face masks; we are (going to) certify it based on that harmonised standard. This means that what is acceptable in Nigeria, the certification that we have given you in Nigeria, is acceptable in all those other places.”
