By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A partnership has been entered into between the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Africa Export Import Bank (Afreximbank).
The collaboration is aimed to promote standardisation and conformity assessment initiatives in Nigeria and West Africa.
Both parties agreed to work together at an explorative meeting held during a visit of the President and Chairman Afreximbank, Dr Okey Oramah, to the Director General of SON, Mr Osita Aboloma, in Lagos.
Welcoming the Afreximbank team including the Regional Coordinator, Mr Abdul Kone, the SON boss said he was keen to learn more about Afreximbank, including the bank’s project for the establishment of an internationally accredited Inspection and Testing Centre in Nigeria.
The relevance of standards and conformity assessment in facilitating trade was extensively discussed to emphasize the importance of the proposed centre to be established in Nigeria by Afreximbank.
The Afreximbank President enumerated the objectives of the bank as including to address the trade finance challenges experienced by African countries; to promote and finance intra and extra-African trade as well as trade between Africa and the rest of the world.
According to Dr Oramah, the Afreximbank was set up in 1993 by African Governments, African private and institutional investors; non-African financial institutions as well as private investors for the purpose of financing, promoting and expanding intra-African and extra-African trade.
He expressed the bank’s interest in working with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria to enhance the Nigerian Quality infrastructure program for the benefit of the Nation’s economy and its people, the West African region as well as the African Continent at large.
Responding, Mr Aboloma assured the Afreximbank team of his organization’s preparedness to support any initiative aimed at accelerating the achievement of the SON mandate as provided in its enabling act No. 14 of 2015.
The SON DG disclosed his organization’s ambition to attain international accreditation for 35 laboratories already being equipped in Lagos while working to expand the scope of its already accredited food technology laboratories in biological and chemical testing.
He assured the Afreximbank team of SON’s resolve to support the objectives of the bank in the overall interest of the accelerated development of the Nigerian economy and the welfare of its citizens.
Mr Aboloma then extended an invitation to the Afreximbank team to take a facility tour of the on-going SON Laboratories Complex project at the Ogba Industrial Scheme in Lagos.
The SON management team at the meeting comprised of Dr Justin Nickaf (Director, Planning Research and Statistics), Mrs Oluremi Ayeni, (Director, Management Systems Certification) and Mrs Chinyere Egwuonwu (Acting Director, Standards Development).
Others were Mrs Mojisola Kehinde, (Deputy Director/Head, Laboratory Services), Mr Bola Fashina (Head Public Relations/Special Assistant to the DG) and Mr Richard Arinze, Special Assistant to the DG/Head, Protocols.
Adedapo Adesanya