Yemisi Izuora
A comprehensive surveillance mechanism is required by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) so as to be able to rid the local market of fake lubricants.
The Director-General of SON, Dr Joseph Odumodu, during a meeting with members of the Lubricant Producers Association of Nigeria (LUPAN) said that every product must be registered as there is lot of counterfeiting and some people use up the cans and refill it and sell them as the original products.
“So, we also need to take up certain responsibilities (some are doing it already) that every product must have a tamper evidence kind of cover, so that when people open your product even if they refill it, they will not be able to spend all the money you are spending in ensuring that you protect your own brands,’’ he insisted.
He said that SON had begun monitoring and sampling of base oil across the country to curtail production of adulterated lubricants and importation of poor quality oil.
Odumodu said that with the help of a database installed in the plant, the exercise would help reduce the rate of diversion and adulteration of lubricants.
He said that nearly 300 million metric tons of base oil were imported to the country for the production of lubricants annually.
The director general added that nearly 240 million metric tons were produced by plants in Nigeria.
He said that an average of 300 million litres of lubricants were consumed in Nigeria annually.
Odumodu said that SON would monitor the quality of lubricants produced in Nigeria with a view to stopping the sale of base oil to unsuspecting Nigerians.