The Director-General, SON, Malam Farouk Salim, at a
sensitisation programme in Lagos, warned that it would no longer be business as
usual for purveyors of fake and sub-standard products in the country.
The sensitisation programme is with theme, “The Use of Crime
Record Information Management System as a tool to fight the influx of
fake/sub-standard products and other related crimes in Nigeria.’’
Salim, represented by Dr Omolara Okunola, Director,
Inspectorate and Compliance, SON, said the partnership would greatly checkmate
high incidence of financially-related crimes, especially influx of counterfeit
products into the country.
He lauded the efforts of the NFIU to support the standards
body towards the effective discharge of the agency’s statutory mandate.
The director-general stated that the agency would get its
staff properly trained on special applications to fight crime and get rid of
counterfeited, fake and sub-standard products coming into the country.
“Our core mandate is to ensure that products and services
locally made or imported into Nigeria meet standards and quality benchmarks in
line with global best practices.
“You know, before you can do anything either in production
or services, you need to gather the necessary data.
“And that is why this intervention by NFIU comes in handy
for us to do documentation, intelligence reports in order to detect and track
dubious importers and fraudsters.
“The collaboration would go a long way to unmask the hidden
hands backing importation of substandard goods into the country.
“This would in turn help check the menace of fake products
across the country,’’ Salim said.
Mr Modibbo HammahTukur, the Chief Executive Officer, NFIU,
disclosed that the influx of fake and sub-standard products into the country
would be controlled via effective collaborative efforts and information sharing
among the relevant government agencies.
HammahTukur said NFIU was the central body in Nigeria
responsible for receiving, requesting, analysing and disseminating financial
intelligence reports on money laundering, terrorist financing and other
relevant information.
Represented by Dr Bello Abdulhaziz, Senior Intelligence
Analyst, NFIU, he said the collaboration
would help SON to flag suspicious products at the borders for further
investigation.
“We are poised to collaborate with all stakeholders in
analysing and providing credible and actionable information to put an end to
influx of substandard products,” he said.
The sensitisation programme is expected to be conducted in
other major cities such as Abuja, Kano and Port-Harcourt for relevant SON
staff.
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