The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) disclosed on Monday that it had closed 20 manufacturing companies in Ekiti State for producing poor quality products.

The head of the organization in the state, Mr Ayeni Feyisayo, gave this hint in Ado Ekiti during a sensitisation seminar titled ‘The Importance of Quality and Globalization of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises’ organized as part of the activities to mark the World Standards Day in the state.

He disclosed that over 100 enterprises were under SON’s close watch in the state and charged manufacturing entities in the state to ensure the standardization of their goods in terms of quality and packaging to avoid sanctions.

Feyisayo restated the SON’s commitment not to compromise on its standards, urging manufacturers and producers of edible products to observe the standardization requirements as set out in their certificates to protect consumers.

He stressed: “The 20 businesses that are shut down are just the few that we have sealed-off since the beginning of this year, the figure could have been more, all we did was to apply human face and see if more than 100 others under our watch will see reason and follow our standard rules.

“We have made them to understand that the fact that your business had once been certified does not guarrantee that it will not be re-visited for purpose of re-certification, the implication of this is that you don’t think all is over, and that you can reduce quality of your products.

“That is why in SON, we do make sure we have minimum of four visitations, most of which are either unannounced or unscheduled. We do not want the public to miscontrue our actions as basically punitive, hence the need to first give opportunity window to some of them to correct errors or improve on the quality of their products, so that in the end, we will be seen as corrective than punitive

“All we are doing is to ensure that the quality and taste of life of the consumers are geometrically increased, and only companies that can supply these needs will continue to dominate”, the SON boss stressed.