The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr. Kabir Mohammed on Tuesday led the Aviacargo Roadmap Committee on a facility tour of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria’s (SON) laboratory as part of efforts to make the country an export driven economy, becoming number in one Africa.
The team, who were received by the management of SON, took members of the committee through the various laboratories of the agency used for testing agro-produce and other commodities in the country to ensure they are up to standards and fit for consumption.
Speaking during the visit, Coordinator, Aviacargo Roadmap Committee, Mr Ikechi Uko explained the reason for the tour and the mandate given to the committee to produce a working document to turn the nation into an export hub in the next three years.
He said Nigeria has good products with necessary regulatory and certification agencies but lacks good branding and promotion.
He noted that Kenya, a country which is smaller in size to Nigeria is number on in export in the continent, despite Nigeria is in the top 10 in most of the agro-produce in Africa.
Uko stated that Nigeria can become number one in Africa if the tide of rejection of its agro-export is stemmed and produce for export get the right certification.
He said Nigerian government has invested heavily in SON but its presence is not being felt in Nigeria.
“The visit here today is very important. We were given a mandate to create a roadmap on how Nigeria can become number one in aviacargo in three years. Currently we are number five in Africa and we are exporting about 200 tons of cargo. The number one in African is Kenya. Kenya is a small economy.
“The Lagos economy is bigger than Kenya and Kenya don’t have a big airport. Their airport is between 5 million to 7 million capacity. There is no parameter that makes Kenya number one in export in Africa. So why are we very poor in export? Nigeria is number one producer of many things in Africa in at least 10 products. “And we are in the top 10 in 23 products. We found out that most of our goods are been rejected. The goods are being rejected because they do not meet the specification of the destination market. Most of them do not have certification from Nigeria. So, it is impossible for us to grow our aviacargo without stopping the rejections of our products. We have to make sure that they meet the standards and are tested here before they are exported out.”
Speaking during the tour, Mr. Richard Adewunmi, SON Director of Laboratory Services, said the organization is elated to receive the committee and would be happy partner with it to ensure it achieves its objective.
He said SON is planning on having some mutual agreement between Nigeria and destinations where the agro-products of the country are being exported, to curb the rejections of the country’s agro-exports.
He said: “We want to do more of mutual recognition agreement with some of the destinations where these products will be heading to. So that once we issue certificate, they will automatically recognize that certificate. These are some of the plans we have and we assure you, we are going to support whatever you have put in place and we will help you to make it work.”
He added that: “We are not just producing standards for products, we are also doing for all services. This facility is internationally accredited. As at today we have labs in Kaduna for textile, Enugu for engineering, we are setting up lab in Abuja, Uyo, Port Harcourt, and Sokoto. The plan is to have labs close to the people so that you don’t have to bring all your samples to our testing lab in Lagos.”
Responding to the question on adulterated fuel in the aviation sector, Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr. Kabir Mohammed, said SON is the only agency that has the expertise to test and certify Jet A1 and other petroleum products.
He said that though, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) is the regulatory agency charged with the duty of supervising the Petroleum Industry Operation and Processing industry applications for leases, experts at SON have the requisite training for regulations of jet fuel.
Mohammed, who was a staff of SON said: “We told authorities that officials of SON needed to be at the point of the process of testing aviation fuel but they were kicked out. The DPR may not have the necessary experts, those who have the expertise have been kicked out. We had meetings with DPR but they blocked SON out of the regulations of Jet fuel”.
