SON cautions manufacturers of hand sanitisers to keep to standard

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has warned manufacturers of hand sanitisers and liquid hand wash to adhere strictly to the global best practices.

It’s Director-General, Mr. Osita Aboloma.made this known during a facility tour to Cormat Nigeria in Ogun on Thursday, saying that failure would attract stiff penalties.

Aboloma, represented by Ogun State Office 11, Mr. Akanbi Eyitayo Michael, stressed the need for quality hand sanitisers, particularly at this time when the world was in the race to find a cure to combat the raging Coronavirus pandemic.

He urged consumers to always insist on patronising only SON certified hand sanitisers to avoid harmful effects on their skin and to also get value for their hard-earned money.

According to him, quality hand sanitisers and liquid hand wash are one of the critical tools to prevent contracting and contain the spread of the virus.

He recalled that SON had recently supported the manufacturing and importation of essential materials to combat the challenges of COVID-19.

The director-general said that this was done through the deployment of 28 relevant international Standards from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

Aboloma revealed that the ISOs include one from the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) on Alcohol based Hand Sanitisers.

“In all our observations during quarterly visits to the factory, they have been adhering to our standards, and we will like to tell consumers and stakeholders not to patronise all the hand sanitisers in the market.

“Some of these hand sanitisers have bad reactions on your skin.

“So, it is always good to patronise only certified liquid hand wash in this present situation we have found ourselves,” the SON director-general said.

He urged manufacturers to visit the Standards body to obtain, at least the minimum requirement standards for producing goods in the country.

Aboloma reiterated the SON’s commitment, support and encouragement to genuine businesses in the country.

He added that in line with the Federal Government’s ease of doing business mandate, SON had repositioned itself to become business facilitators.

The SON chief urged manufacturers to take advantage of its services to become competitive, both locally and internationally.

“We are here to give technical support to Cormat Nigeria Limited and other genuine businesses in the nation.

“They have been our stakeholders for the past 15 years, and they are not just coming into the business of alcohol-based hand sanitisers and liquid hand wash production.

“We have always admonished manufacturers to come to us for technical support so that we can guide them through.

“SON is with you all the way and in line with the ease of doing business mandate of the Federal Government, we are here to encourage manufacturers and even the small businesses too.

“Come to us, we will guide you and give you all the necessary technical support,” he said.

Responding, the Head Technical and Plant Manager, Cormat, Mr Jelle Van Der Meer, stated that it was open to suggestions by the standards body to help the company raise the bar of performance in achieving its corporate goals.

Van De Meer also reassured the SON team that, as an ISO certified company, all observations for improvements would be adhered to, while necessary attention would be given for continual improvement in the production of premium quality products.

He said SON’s input and their standards helped the company to be in a good position to produce goods to meet international standards in a bid to combat the deadly virus.

“SON’s visit was important to the company as it would go a long way to raising its bar for standardisation, while also generating new ideas and creating new opportunities for the company to be competitive.

“I applaud SON for being part of our journey to get to the highest level of producing quality products.

“Their input has been very important to us, and it will trigger us to do even more and become better than our competitors,” he said.

Edited By: Olagoke Olatoye (NAN)