Africa: CTIL Bags manufacturing Endorsement

Posted on : Tuesday, 16th December 2014

 Coleman Technical Industries Limited (CTIL) has received the Standards Organisation of Nigeria's (SON's) endorsement to produce high quality voltage cables in the country.\

Director General, SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu said the endorsement is coming on the heels of the agency's commitment to drive industrialisation in the nation through standardisation.

Odumodu during a courtesy visit to CTIL, added that the investment also indicates the confidence of the company in the nation's economy, and pledged the agency's unflinching support to provide the level playing field for the investment to thrive.

"These young men have invested very heavily in this sector. If we are not using standardisation to promote investment, they will not have the confidence to invest over N10 billion in this facility‎. This investment is a confirmation of their belief in this economy because they see a future in the cable industry in Nigeria," he said.

The SON boss commended the company's strong commitment in manufacturing products that meets the minimum requirement of the Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS)‎ ‎in the country.

‎ According to him, standardisation has brought over N20 billion investment into the industry and said the SON will continue to use standardisation to promote investment in the nation. "We have done so successfully on cement, ceramics, iron and steel industries. My verdict is that this is the way to go, I want to say that SON will support this initiative to the end of the earth. We must hold hands with Coleman Technical Industries Limited to ensure that this investment thrives," he added.

In his words, "We will work with them to ensure that no substandard cables comes into the market and also remove the substandard cables in the market to create opportunities for this specialised industry to be successful in this market."

"We are also working on a new national quality infrastructure to build a new infrastructure to make made-in-Nigeria products more appealing to the world. I am looking forward to the day I will come and certify the first export of your products even if it is to Ghana. It is something that is possible and achievable," he stressed.

He pointed out that Nigeria has a total need for cables in the housing sector but stressed that the nation is yet to meet the demand for cable. "We are currently working with the cable manufacturers of Nigeria, but a lot more needs to be done. Coleman's investment is a mark of confidence in the economy and all we can do as government is to make sure that the investment succeed," he said. He added that "We must also through our standardisation effort begin to make a transition. We must go the way the world is going. We cannot afford to be isolated from the rest of the world. So, if the world has already moved, we must move fast enough to catch up with the rest of the world."‎

In his response, the Managing Director, CTIL, Mr. George Onofowokan assured the director general of meeting up with the minimum requirements of the NIS by striving hard in manufacturing higher standard cables in the country and for export.

"We are also looking towards our first export of our cables in a very short time. We believe this will be the beginning of a lot of export for Nigerian cables outside the economy‎. We have always worked on standardisation of our cables and also worked with SON on the NIS and we will continue to adopt these standards. We have been in partnership with SON for over 12 years where our cables are re-certified every year for over those 12 years," he said.

He said the certification process with SON is not a small feat and expressed the company's commitment to get re-certified every year. "We have spent a lot of resources and time in setting up a laboratory in our company making sure that the laboratory is up to the standard and even higher than the standards of what is required. For standards, it is very important because we are Nigerians we have to change the way people think about our products internationally. So we have to strive more than what others are doing to achieve our desired goals," he stated.