By Fatima Saka
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has sensitised rice millers in Kano State on its requirements for third party milling.
The Director-General of SON, Malam Faruk Salim, at the program on Friday, said that the aim was to empower the millers to make their products to be of standard.
Salim expressed the readiness of the organisation to help factories to ensure they don’t loose their products by using false machine and also to protect customers.
“If you buy a bag of 50 kilos of rice, it will be the same quantity, We have technical support to certify every product and make everything easy for them.
“If you standardise a product, it will be available for local consumption and export with the Free Africa Trade, with what we have right now, it makes products easy to move across the border,” he said.
The director-general further explained that if a product was up to standard and producers follow the laid down rules, they would not have any problem in their receiving country.
He further said SON would continue to ensure that factories do not lose their products by using false machines, while measuring the products and at the same time protect the customers.
He also acclimate that SON would provide technical support and certification to enhance the standardisation of products.
However, the Kano Regional Director of SON, Mr Albert Wilberforce, said that the event would enlighten farmers on what is expected of them when it comes to issue of rice mill for third party.
“The third party mill is the fact that some people are farmers, but don’t have milling factory.
“They take it to millers to produce for them, the rice mill must meet up with certification requirements, these milling factory must be feasible,” he said.
Also, Wilberforce said that when farmers produced quality commodity for export, the companies would expand, more people would be employed, and it will reduce insecurity and increase life span of consumers in the country.
Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, represented by the Commissioner for Works and Housing, Alhaji Idris Sale, said the training was timely and commended the agricultural revolution of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Responding on behalf of trainees, Alhaji Shehu Musa, who is one of the Small and Medium Scale industrialists, said the training would increase their capacity in improving standardisation of products.
