from right to left, DR. Omojola,(Director RMRDC)Mr Olaniyan, (Director, RMRDC) Mr Charles Malata - Chirwa ( Head NQI , Nigeria),Dr HD Ibrahim DG/CEO RMRDC, Dr Raymond Tavares UNIDO Veina, Prof Abimbola Uzomah ,Lead National Expert for Componet 1 (NQI),and Mr Obekpa John (Project Officer,RMRDC) |
As part of efforts to address the issue of poor quality of indigenously produced raw materials so as to improve the competitiveness of domestic consumer goods, the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) is leading an inter-agency partnership initiative involving the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and others to evolve a robust and functional frame work for the development of acceptable quality standards for raw materials produced in Nigeria.
Speaking during
a meeting with members of UNIDO led by Dr Raymond Tavares , Industrial Development Officer , Trade Capacity
-Building Branch, Vienna, Austria at the RMRDC Headquarters in Abuja recently,
the Director General of the Council, Dr HussainiDoko Ibrahim, said an
inter-agency collaboration wasnecessary for achieving a holistic quality
standard development framework for industrial raw materials in Nigeria.
Dr Ibrahim,
while acknowledging the importance of a working synergy between RMRDC and other
relevant stakeholders in improving the quality standards of raw materials in
the country, emphasized that assuring and ensuring the availability of quality
materials for resource based industries in Nigeria is the cardinal statutory
responsibility of RMRDC.
Director General/ CEO (RMRDC), Dr HussainiDoko Ibrahim in a chat with Dr Raymond Tavares, UNIDO, Vienna during the latter’s visit to the Council |
He said the council would therefore welcome,
as part of its strategic plan, viable collaborations with relevant stakeholders
to quickly improve competitiveness of consumer goods produced in Nigeria by
elaborating quality standards , necessary to attain industrial
qualityspecifications for raw materials
by the manufacturing industries for compliance by producers of basic and value added raw materials.
Dr Ibrahim said the council is poised to exploiting areas of quick needs- low hanging fruits- as it were and that the council was open to working with relevant partners to improve the capacity of producers of raw materials to meet industrial quality specifications and also develop standards where there is non for strategic industrial raw materials. He particularly decried the frequent rejection of some commodities exports from Nigeria due to quality concerns .
Dr Ibrahim said the council is poised to exploiting areas of quick needs- low hanging fruits- as it were and that the council was open to working with relevant partners to improve the capacity of producers of raw materials to meet industrial quality specifications and also develop standards where there is non for strategic industrial raw materials. He particularly decried the frequent rejection of some commodities exports from Nigeria due to quality concerns .
However, he
described as unacceptable, instances where some multinationals discriminatingly
shun the use of local raw materials on the guise that they were sub-standard.
He cited the case of barytes produced in Nigeria as being one of the best in
the World with specific gravity as high as 4.2
but often rejected by some companies for use as drilling mud, in the oil
and gas industry .
To ameliorate
the situation , the DG/CEO said that RMRDC in collaboration with African was in
the process of setting up a raw materials testing laboratory, where conformity
assessment test to set quality standards ( industrial specifications for raw
materials) can be ascertained .
Speaking at the
forum, the leader of the UNIDO delegation,Dr Raymond Tavares said UNIDO would
provide the necessary technical assistance to the Council and the Inter-Agency
Committee on Development of Standards for Raw Materials , in its bid to improve
quality standard of raw materials produced , in Nigeria to ensure global
competitiveness of their consumer outputs, where UNIDO's mandate in Nigeria permits. He acknowledged
RMRDC's efforts in working to improve the quality of industrial raw
materials as being pivotal in ensuring the competitiveness of indigenous
consumer goods in the international markets.
Also speaking Mr Charles Malata -Chirwa, Head
National Quality Infrastructure, said UNIDO was at the concluding stages of
developing a national quality infrastructure for Nigeria,working with SON as
Secretariat and other relevant stakeholders such as RMDC,on various sub
committees.
He also said
UNIDO was an organization that helps developing countries and economies in
transition to comply with international standards, even as he noted that
manufacturers in developing countries and related industry support institutions
needed to develop systems to comply with the new management standard through
certification of processes and even personnel . He listed the quality
infrastructure as Accreditation, Standardization, Metrology etc. and that a
Technical Regulations Body/Board comprising agencies with regulatory mandates,
as members was in the offering . The essence of the endeavor is to protect the consumer and be
competitive. He also lauded Council's efforts in addressing the issue of quality standards from the raw
materials supply angle as he reiterated
that poor quality raw materials
cannot produce competitive consumer goods.
Chuks Ngaha
Deputy Director
Public Affairs Unit (RMRDC)
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