Yemisi Izuora
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is collaborating with the European Union (EU) to organise a final national training on standards on code of practice for some agriculture produces.
The workshop would unveil the results of training facilitated by the organisation focusing on exports of key agriculture commodities including cocoa, beans, shea-butter, and melon.
The project coming on the heels of EU ban of Nigeria beans in the international market, would eventually equip participants with the technicalities’ of the export market, with regards to the issues of development of standards and the engagement of the private sector.
A release by the organisers says the Theme of the training ‘Standard and Quality– Unleashing the potential of Agricultural products to grow the Non-oil Exports in Nigeria’, is being organised under the auspices of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries from the EU’s Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT).
About 100 participants are expected at the forum.
The TBT Programme is financed by the European Union under the 10th European Development Fund, with its main objective being to contribute to improving competitiveness in local, regional and export markets by enhancing the export capacity of economic operators in ACP countries.
These it seeks to achieve through: the enhancement of the capacity of regional and continental quality infrastructure institutions; coordination and harmonisation of ACP technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures to facilitate intra-regional trade.
Other are through the provision of a pool of broadened capacity of economic operators to comply with Technical Regulations, Standards and Conformity Assessment Procedures set by major trading partners in selected priority sectors;
It is a demand-driven programme responding to requests for capacity building from ACP countries to ensure full ownership by the ACP beneficiaries.
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is the statutory government agency with the sole responsibility for National Policy on Standards, Standards Specification, Quality Control and Metrology, Manufacturers of Industrial and imported products and services.
SON is an active member of the African Regional Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), Codex Alimentarius Commission, which is the Food Standardization Organ of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and is also a member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)