It is an old nut that has proven difficult, if not impossible, to crack: why despite the presence of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the country has not only remained a haven for fake and substandard products, but one in which incidences of product adulteration and faking have refused to abate.
While the nation gropes for answers, a former president of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, Eugene Nweke, has since counselled that the nation tackle the problem from the root, the enablers of the rot – the shipping lines.
Said he: “The SON knows too well that its greatest challenge stems from its lack of regulatory control over the shipping lines, which it needs to checkmate them publicly…” And his arguments: Nigeria is a notorious haven for international shipping lines whose modus operandi runs contrary to best practices. That the shipping environment allows for collusion between foreign shipping lines and local proxies that are no more than fronts by some unscrupulous politicians, especially those that fall short of international best practices. Finally, that foreign shipping lines easily transmute into national one through the instrument of a registered national association – hence the reign of extortion in the shipping industry.
Source: Nation
