By Merit Ibe
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has commissioned its North East regional office and laboratory complex in Bauchi State as part of drive to reduce cost of business for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s) in the North East and contribute to the Federal Government’s policy of ease of doing business.
At the commissioning of the edifice which comprises laboratories on the ground floor and 18 offices on the first and second floor in addition to a large conference room, the Director General of the SON, Mallam Farouk Salim, noted that when the strategic decision was made to establish the laboratory and others, in some states and the FCT, Abuja, the major factor that weighed heavily was the need to improve the turn around time for the delivery of the organisation’s laboratory services, thereby protecting the integrity of its testing systems.
“The offices would house the North East Regional Office of the organisation as well as our Bauchi State office. The laboratories are in Food Chemistry and Engineering. The Food Chemistry laboratory would focus on food related products including the very popular Bauchi “Masa and Danbun Nama,” while the Engineering laboratory is dedicated for products in the built industry serving both large entity such as Lafarge Cement Company in nearby Gombe State and thousands of block moulders in this State and across the North East.
Salim said the laboratories in the complex were deliberately designed to meet the needs of MSME’s major drivers for the economic development of our country.
He noted the choice of Bauchi for the North East Regional Office was due to the excellent disposition of its people who are great entrepreneurs in diverse aspects of commerce and industry. “But, more importantly, Bauchi was the first state in the North East to offer us land large enough for our purpose. Indeed, our application for this land was treated with utmost dispatch. Your Excellency, please accept our immense gratitude for the professional manner your officials handled our application.”
Emphasising the place of testing as a critical component of conformity assessment programme of the SON, which in turn is one of the pillars of the national quality infrastructure, the DG assured of his resolve to secure accreditation for the laboratories in the complex before the end of his tenure.
“The accreditation would ensure global acceptance of the test reports from this facility in accordance with the principle of’ tested once accepted globally.”
“Apart from testing services, SON has other services that should be patronised by entities in Bauchi State, particularly the state government. I would like to advise certification to the various International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) Management Systems Standards. The certification would assure persons you deal with that your processes and procedures are managed in accordance with the requirements of the applicable standards. International bodies and your development partners would have confidence in engaging with Bauchi State knowing that you manage your processes according to the standard they themselves are certified to.
“Bauchi State, our host state has a huge land mass representing about 5.3 % of Nigeria’s land mass. One senatorial zone in this State is much bigger than most States in the South East. It is therefore, not difficult to imagine the huge challenge facing SON in carrying out it’s mandate in this massive state. The only operational vehicle we have, cannot effectively carry our staff to the industries we need to cover in all the twenty Local Government Areas of the State. In this regard, I wish to request the kind intervention of His Excellency in amelioration of this problem.”
He appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari, for his consistent support to thie organisation.
Present on the occasion were the Executive Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, Kauran Bauchi; the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Y. Katagum, among others.