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The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has convened a Technical Committee meeting on the draft of standard for Laundry Services. The meeting held at the SON Corporate Headquarters in Abuja and is aimed at standardizing Nigeria’s Laundry Services sector to ensure the quality of services offered by stakeholders in the sector.

The Director-General (DG) Mallam Farouk Salim represented by the Director, Standards Development, Engr. Yahya Bukar welcomed the stakeholders to the meeting. He noted that the draft standard for laundry services was initiated since 2017. However, the Committee could not present the Standard for approval due to limited input recorded by consulted stakeholders and the COVID-19 pandemic.

A group picture of the Director General Mallam Farouk Salim, represented by Director Standards Engr. Yahaya Bukar with Members of the Technical Committee on Laundry Services.

He went on to explain that this highlights the importance of stakeholders’ participation in the standard development process, as any standard that does not elicit enough interest and comment from stakeholders, will not meet the prerequisite due process for Technical Committee meeting and Council approval.

According to Salim, Technical Committees constituted by SON are responsible for articulating Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS). The Committee thus, decides what requirements are best in their general interest to determine the minimum requirements, while SON as a National Secretariat is to ensure the processes involved for obtaining the National position aligns with International Best Practices based on the principles of standards development, which are Transparency, Openness, Impartiality, Consensus, Efficiency, Relevance and Consistency.

The SON helmsman said hopefully that consensus would be achieved from the diverse opinions raised by participants on the circulated draft as document in the collated comments to conclude the standard.

He added that on completion, the standard would receive its due attention for implementation, to give “Made in Nigeria” products and services, the leading edge in quality, customer satisfaction, sanitization of the sector and empowering of the service providers to make the most of their skills, create jobs and make profits.

The DG wished the participants fruitful deliberations and appreciated them for taking out time to participate in meeting. He noted that without their involvement in the decision-making process for standards development it would be impossible to avail Nigerian businesses the much-needed Nigeria Industrial Standards for manufacturing, service, trade and investment.

In the same vein, the Director, Products Certification Department (PCD), Mr. Tersoo I. Orngudwem described the meeting as a National service and contribution to the national development. He noted that the outcome of the work put in place by the members of the committee would contribute to the development of the nation and the economy in general.

The Director (PCD) pointed out that the standard on laundry services like any other standard faces its own challenges. He said there should be good service provision so that customers will get value, as the standards is to guide and provide the basic bench line and minimum requirement to begin with and the services should be  comparable to the best practices in the world.
 
An election was conducted and Prof. Ujam, l. Oguejiofo Theophilus from the University of Nigeria Nsukka was chosen to Chair the committee. In his remarks, the Chairman said standards needs to be obeyed to achieve effective results so that it can be beneficial to the public and to businesses. He noted that he was looking forward to fruitful deliberations. He further added that from time to time standards can be revisited and deliberated upon for positive improvement.

The hybrid meeting was convene to create an opportunity for some committee members to attend the meeting virtually.

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