18 March 2008
Nigeria's continuing assistance to Liberia's capacity development received a boost with the return to the country of six staff of various Liberian Ministries on March 14th 2008 after an exhaustive training in standardization of goods being imported into the country.
The training was conducted by the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) which undertook the responsibility of training Liberian officials in identifying standards of goods imported into the country.
The six officials drawn from the Ministries of Commerce, Agriculture and Finance were equipped with the basic knowledge of what entails a system, principles for establishing a system, interpretation of requirements and auditing knowledge of international standards as well as the competence to establish a system.
The Lead Auditors courses are for those who will manage activities of an audit team including all responsibilities associated with audit.
The Liberian officials were also trained in Quality System Certification, which would enable them ensure that manufacturers or service providers deliver consistently certified products and services based on stated terms.
The graduation of the six Liberian participants of the course was attended by Commerce Minister Cllr. Frances Johnson-Morris who thanked the Nigerian government for its continuous sisterly assistance to Liberia's post war recovery.
She used the opportunity to tour some industries producing world standard products both for domestic consumption and export and saw first hand, how quality inspectors assure the standards of the products.
Responding, the Director General of the Standards Organization of Nigeria, Dr. John Ndanusa Akanya, said African countries must help one another against dumping of inferior products by industrialized countries who would not allow the same products to be used by their people. He added that Nigeria would stand by Liberia at all times.
With over 40 trainers, assessors and Lead Assessors in standards certification, Nigeria has led other African countries in this respect. This has enabled the Standards Organization of Nigeria to intercept millions of dollars worth of goods from being dumped in Nigeria by foreign manufacturers.
Recently, both countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding last year to train Liberian officials to stop the indiscriminate dumping of sub-standard goods in the country. The training was to be done in batches.
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