Nigeria has launched a verification system for its steel in an attempt to ensure quality of products churned out from the country’s steel sector
According to a report on Vanguard, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria has started verification of steel in Lagos and Ogun State. The agency’s team has already visited Universal Steel Company, Sankyo Steel Mills Company, Phoenix Steel Mills, African Foundries, Monarch Steel Mills, Metal Africa Steel Production and Real Infrastructure Nigeria.
Bede Obayi, who led the verification team said that the exercise, which will be extended to other states as well, was necessitated by a number of reasons including the revelation that some companies were producing products without putting their identification marks on it, mixing of imported steel with locally produced ones.
Obayi said, “Why we are doing the verification is because government wants to know the exact situation of the companies in the steel sector in Nigeria in terms of installed capacity, production capacity, level of patronage and even jobs created. For example, we cannot be producing the same quality of steel as the imported ones or else, the imported ones will take over the market.”
Obayi underscored the importance of quality in the products turned out by the steel manufacturing companies, adding that quality is better maintained when the regulators of standards visit product manufacturers to see what they are doing. He added that this was another important reason of the visit.
