Minister of State for Industry John Enoh has attributed weak consumer patronage of Nigerian made products to concerns over quality, speaking at the launch of a Digital Standards Platform developed jointly by the Standards Organization of Nigeria and the Bureau of Public Procurement in Abuja.
Enoh said consumers would naturally embrace locally made goods once they consistently meet acceptable standards, arguing that the era of expecting Nigerians to buy local products purely out of patriotism must give way to one where quality drives the decision. He said the new platform represents a major shift in the country’s quality infrastructure by giving businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises, digital access to Nigerian Industrial Standards, certification services and compliance tools that were previously slow and costly to obtain.
He said standards function as the language of trust in any economy, and that the platform would remove bureaucratic bottlenecks that discouraged compliance while turning quality assurance into a competitive advantage rather than a burden. He linked the initiative to the Renewed Hope Agenda and the Nigeria First policy, saying local products can only sustain patronage if they demonstrably match global quality benchmarks, and that integrating the platform into public procurement would let government agencies verify standards before awarding contracts.
Director General of the Standards Organization, Ifeanyi Okeke, described the platform as a digital gateway that will modernise the country’s quality infrastructure, giving businesses, researchers and consumers seamless access to Nigerian Industrial Standards and lists of certified manufacturers and products. He said the organization has also negotiated discounts of up to 35 percent on internationally recognized standards purchased through the platform, lowering compliance costs for manufacturers and researchers, and that the system would help identify counterfeit and substandard products in the market.
Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Adebowale Adedokun, said integrating the platform into the federal procurement system would change how government spends public funds, describing procurement as one of government’s strongest tools for driving industrial development and job creation. He said a standards attestation certificate obtained through the platform will soon become a mandatory requirement for federal procurement of goods, works and services covered by applicable standards, which he said would reduce manipulation in the bidding process and ensure only certified products and services are supplied to government.
