In the wake of recent rise in collapse of buildings, the Nigerian government intends to revisit the review of cement standards in Nigeria so as to place new restriction on the use of certain classes of cement.
Reliable information indicates that stakeholders are the board of the governing council of the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) to be constituted to embark of driving this agenda.
In 2014, the Commodity Composition and Conformity Criteria for Common Cement and Specification of Mandatory Industrial Standards NIS 444-1, was unveiled by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. It prescribed requirements for packaging and labeling of cement bags and the use of certain types of cement grades.
Following the planned implementation of the new Mandatory Industrial Standards Order for cement manufacturing, distribution and usage, three cement companies instituted different suites against SON. These companies are, Lafarge cement WAPCO, Ashaka cement and Unicem. The companies are seeking the court to establish whether or not SON complied with all the mandatory provisions of the law in establishing these new standards.
In line with the same, the SON in partnership with the European Union has organized a training seminar on standards on code of practice for some agricultural produces. According to a statement jointly signed by Mrs.Chenyere Egwuonwu, the Acting director of SON and Mrs.Irina Kireeva of EU, the workshop will take place in Abuja and will focus on among other things the export of key agricultural produces like cocoa, beans and melon.
The seminar comes at a time when the European Union has imposed bans on Nigerian beans in the international market and the forum seeks to sensitize participants on the dynamics and technicalities of the export market in relation to issues of standards and involvement of the private sector. The theme for the seminar will be ‘Standard and Quality- Unleashing the potential of Agricultural products to grow the Non-oil Exports in Nigeria
